Resistance of new Belgian poplar clones to British isolates of the bacterial canker pathogen,Xanthomonas populi

Forty-nine new poplar clones, bred in Belgium and screened there for resistance to bacterial canker caused by Xanthomonas populi, were additionally screened in southern England, using British isolates of the bacterium. Thirty-five of the test clones ranked better than the clone ‘Boelare’, which is already registered in the UK as an approved clone, and is regarded as having acceptable resistance. The registered clone ‘Ghoy’ was more susceptible, and outranked only four test clones. Preliminary measurements of canker length and stem girdling index showed differences between five bacterial isolates.