Preliminary results of a survey of weeds as potential hosts of Xylella fastidiosa strain CoDiRO

To investigate the role of herbaceous plants as hosts of Xylella fastidiosa, monthly sampling of the native flora of two heavily infected olive groves and of the sides of the adjacent dirt roads was conducted from January 2014 onwards. One of the orchards had not been subjected to weeding, whereas periodic tillage had been carried out in the other. Overall, more than 100 species of 40 monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous families were collected.