Fusarium oxysporum

Fusarium oxysporum is an ascomycete fungus in the family Nectriaceae, treated as a genetically diverse morphospecies made up of many strains, most of which live harmlessly in soil as decomposers or plant endophytes. Certain strains, however, are soil borne pathogens that cause Fusarium wilt, colonizing plant roots and blocking the vascular tissue that carries water, which leads the plant to wilt and often die. More than thirty host specific forms of the pathogen have been described, each usually limited to a narrow range of hosts, and together they damage crops including bananas, where the disease is known as Panama disease, as well as tomatoes, melons, coffee, cotton and many ornamental plants. Because each strain's host range is so narrow, controlling the fungus is difficult and usually depends on resistant varieties and careful field sanitation rather than a single universal treatment. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/