Death of mature Plane trees

[alliaria]

Hi,

Has anyone any insight into ceratocystis fimbriata f.sp. platani. This seems to fit but without obvious stem lesions. Root contact and sporular invasion of fresh wounds leading to death in 4-7 years.

Cheers

[Graham]

Damaged gas main?

[sean]

I had a look at these trees today. My first thoughts were massaria however I have only seen massaria infecting and killing individual limbs. These tres look like they been nuked!!! To my eye it appears that one side of the avenue has been affected far more than the other side although there is apparent crown die back on that side too.

 

 

 

Symptoms-Description

C. fimbriata is primarily a xylem pathogen. On trees (Theobroma, Mangifera, Prunus, etc.), infection typically occurs through fresh wounds (Giraldo, 1957; Viégas, 1960; Moller et al., 1969), although root infections are also common (Ribeiro et al., 1986; Rossetto and Ribeiro, 1990; Laia et al., 2000). Mycelium and spores enter wounds and move through the xylem in water-conducting cells and into ray parenchyma cells. The fungus causes dark reddish-brown to purple to deep-brown or black staining in the xylem. This staining may extend several metres from the roots, up the trunk of the tree, and into branches. When affected branches or trunks are cut in cross-section, the staining along the rays gives a distinctive wedge-shaped or starburst-like pattern (Sinclair et al., 1987). On the surface of the trunk or branches, cankers may develop over areas of xylem discoloration, and the cankers may exude gum. Branch and trunk cankers are particularly common on Populus, Prunus, Platanus (Sinclair et al., 1987) and Eucalyptus (Laia et al., 2000), though wilting may also occur in the absence of canker development. Wilted leaves typically become dry and curled rather suddenly but remain attached to the tree for several weeks. On Platanus, individual leaves of affected branches often show interveinal chlorosis and necrosis, perhaps associated with fungal-produced phytotoxins (Ake et al., 1992; Alami et al., 1998; Pazzagli et al., 1999

 

Means of movement and dispersal

 

Natural dispersal

 

The fungus spreads readily between adjacent Platanus trees via root grafts (Accordi, 1986). It may also infect Platanus trees through wounds in the roots (Vigouroux and Stojadinovic, 1990). Mangifera trees may be infected through the roots from soilborne inoculum (Rossetto and Ribeiro, 1990), and root crops such as Ipomoea are commonly infected through wounds made by insects and rodents (Clark and Moyer, 1988). Ascopores are probably spread naturally by insects and are not likely airborne. Airborne disperal of conidia is also not likely, except in insect frass. Rainsplash dispersal of conidia has not been documented.

[alliaria]

Hi Sean,

Youy were in the background when Win was on the phone.

Massaria, I may be wrong but there are no tree deaths associated with it in London, Salt damage, not with the rooting zone to the side, salt damage and phytophthora attack due to soil colloid damage, possible. Ceratocystis seems to be closest, tree death, lens shaped lesions, numerous mites on dead twigs attracted by exudate from ascospores.

Have contacted Forest Researcg, we,ll see what they say.

Cheers

[sean]

Hi Sean,

Youy were in the background when Win was on the phone.

Massaria, I may be wrong but there are no tree deaths associated with it in London, Salt damage, not with the rooting zone to the side, salt damage and phytophthora attack due to soil colloid damage, possible. Ceratocystis seems to be closest, tree death, lens shaped lesions, numerous mites on dead twigs attracted by exudate from ascospores.

Have contacted Forest Researcg, we,ll see what they say.

Cheers

 

I think you could be right:001_smile:

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

As always with mature (?) trees is never just one factor but a combination of biotic and abiotic which accumulatively tip the balance...wonder if Armellaria might also pop up in September?

 

Cheers..

Paul

[alliaria]

Hi Paul,

Yeah I thought about that, will it be causal or secondary?

Dunno.

Cheers.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Hi Paul,

Yeah I thought about that, will it be causal or secondary?

Dunno.

Cheers.

 

secondary, trees that are vital and unstressed do not sucumb to the honey.

 

also look out for pholiota squarosus.

[alliaria]

Hi,

Here are some pics. No sign of massaria, no evidence of ceratocystis, but still many trees dead and dying??? Note the staining around the cambial region in the last pic.

[Fungus]

No sign of massaria, no evidence of ceratocystis, but still many trees dead and dying??? Note the staining around the cambial region in the last pic.

 

Looked for white mycelium plates and/or black rhizomorphs or plaques of a parasitic Armillaria species yet ?