Flower Mottling Symptom
  • BBTD is diagnosed by identifying symptoms of diseased plants or by submitting a banana leaf sample for virus testing
  • Mottling on flowers is when the veins of the reddish flower bracts of the bell flower show discontinuous "dots and dashes" or streaks which resemble the "Morse code" symptom on petioles and leaves
  • When young banana plants are infected with bunchy top virus, they usually do not flower; older plants may show the mottling symptom if they are infected with the virus later in their life
  • This symptom also resembles a mosaic disease symptom caused by another virus, Cucumber Mosaic Cucumovirus.

Flower Mottling


Mottling of a banana infloresence infected with Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV)


Normal banana infloresence (not mottled and not infected with Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV)

Photographs are courtesy of the University of Hawaii and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture


Maintained by Scot Nelson: snelson@hawaii.edu
Last Revised on September 12, 2006