Colletotrichum is an important fungal genus with great diversity, which causes anthracnose of a variety of crop plants including rubber trees. Colletotrichum acutatum and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides have been identified as the major causative agents of Colletotrichum leaf disease of rubber trees in Sri Lanka based on morphology, pathogenicity, and the analysis of internally transcribed spacer sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. This study has been conducted to investigate the members of the C. acutatum species complex causing rubber leaf disease using a morphological and multi gene approach. For the first time in Sri Lanka, Colletotrichum simmondsii, Colletotrichum laticiphilum, Colletotrichum nymphaeae, and Colletotrichum citri have been identified as causative agents of Colletotrichum leaf disease in addition to C. acutatum s. str. Among them, C. simmondsii has been recognized as the major causative agent.

Colletotrichum can be identified as the major causative fungal agent of avocado anthracnose all over the world. In Sri Lanka, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides reported to be the sole causative agent of avocado anthracnose. This paper presents a morphological, genetic and pathogenic study conducted using Colletotrichum isolates collected from different avocado cultivating areas of Sri Lanka. Here, the identity of C. gloeosporioides has been confirmed using multi locus phylogeny as the major causative agent and provides Colletotrichum gigasporum as a causative agent of avocado anthracnose for the first time in Sri Lanka. Difference of these two species also confirmed by banding patterns obtained using Inter Sequence Simple Repeat (ISSR) primers.