News

A plant disease normally found in subarctic climates has been identified for the first time in the UK in buttercups as far south as Herefordshire. Sclerotinia subarctica, a fungus known to affect both crops and wild plants, has also been found in carrots and meadow buttercups in Perthshire by plant scientists at the Warwick Crop Centre in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick. It is closely related to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum which commonly causes disease in crop plants such as lettuce, carrot and oilseed rape. In carrots, both fungi infect the foliage and can travel down the leaves and invade the crown of the carrot, causing them to rot in the ground or in store once they have been harvested.

The Carlo Naef Trophy for 2012 has been awarded to Dr Rosemary Collier in recognition of her contribution to the UK flower bulb industry over the last 20 years. Rosemary is the Director of Warwick Crop Centre, part of the School of Life Sciences, which specialises in research and training for land-based industries.

The HDC Pest Bulletin for 2012 is now up and running on the Syngenta web site. Updates will be made each week.

Researchers from the School of Life Sciences, including Warwick Crop Centre (Rob Lillywhite, Vicky Buchanan-Wollaston, Laura Green) took part in a New Optimists Forum debate on 1st March.

The Forum is generating a series of scenarios set in the particular geography of one city, Birmingham in the English Midlands, and within the time scale of some 40 years; i.e. to 2050. It is garnering the informed perspectives of a wide range of scientists, most of whom live and work in the region. It is involving plant scientists, epidemiologists, engineers, medics and geographers to name but a few disciplines.