[12][13][14][15] The fungi that cause bitter rot of apple were first formally described in 1856 by Miles Berkeley of Great Britain as Gloeosporium fructigenum.

[16] Bertha Stoneman later observed that G. fructigenum was similar to certain fungi from citrus that Pier Andrea Saccardo had placed in the Genus Colletotrichum.

[17][18] In the early 1900s Perley Spaulding and Hermann Von Schrenk lumped several indistinguishable fungi together under the name Glomerella cingulata.

[21] However, von Arx went just a touch too far, and less than a decade later the isolates that had acute (pointed) conidia (asexual spores) were named Colletotrichum acutatum.

[23] With the development of species identification based on molecular phylogenetics, determination of the sexual stage was no required and the single genus name of Colletotrichum was chosen as the holomorph.

[29][30][31] The Colletotrichum species that cause bitter rot overwinter in infected fruit mummies, buds, twigs, and branch cankers.

[2] Under humid conditions infected apples that drop to the soil surface in the fall are not a significant source of inoculum the next year, as Colletotrichum will generally be succeeded by various yeasts.

[23] Even with good horticultural practices, successful control of bitter rot on susceptible cultivars under warm and wet conditions requires regular applications of fungicides.