Erwinia chrysanthemi was transferred to the new genus Dickeya and divided into six species: D. dianthicola, D. dadantii, D. zeae, D. chrysanthemi, D. paradisiaca and D. dieffenbachiae. Since then, it has become clear that some strains do not fall into any of these species and may constitute new species, e.g. ‘D. solani’. All Dickeya spp. cause economically important diseases on different plant hosts worldwide, including 10 monocot and 16 dicot families. However, D. dadantii and ‘D. solani’ have been selected here for two very different reasons.