Eucalyptus globulus

[Treemover]

was asked to Picus test some trees and came across this. It seems to be attacking the trees (only the Eucalypts) at the base, rising only a few feet.

 

Anyone any ideas?

 

It looks very like Armillaria spp, but no black threads. In ground litter there is evidence of white mycellium, but would this be normal anyway, as there is a huge amount of leaves on the floor.

[treeseer]

similar disease tearing up N Q'land. closest i could come to an ID was Chrysoporthe cubensis/sp.

sapwood rotter--no rhizomorphs as you note-- so i don't know what tomo would show...what did picus show on that one?

[Cassian]

Gday Gents, as a Qld consulting arborist I have been gathering the data on this significant disease for Energex a S.E. Qld Utility company for 4 years. The first tree that I found was 2009 on Mt Glorious, since then the disease has spread to 50 locations in S. E. Qld (hundreds of trees), 35 locations recorded on Google Earth. It’s a scary one has it is spreading and killing so fast.

The symptoms in your globulus are identical to symptoms affecting E. saligna, pilularis, and grandis and are similar to those effecting Corymbia intermedia and Lophostemon confertus in S.E. Qld.

The data I have gathered has gone into 3 ETS/Energex reports (of mine) the most recent I had published as a two part article in the Australian Arbor Age (Oct-Nov 12 & Dec-Jan 13). Gums are going from having early symptoms (infection into bark) to advanced within a 3 year time frame and are being ring barked and killed, as part of the advanced process wood is embrittled resulting in shear failure within 2m of ground level (Out of 9 tree failures 2 where still live at point of failure and where 90% ringbarked).

The disease is unknown by the Arb profession and forest pathologists in S.E Qld, though since my alerting DAFF pathologists (QLD) I have received recognition that the disease/disorder is present. I have named the beastie Canker Syndrome as it appears that a number of organisms may be involved (as opposed to a single causal agent). The key causal factors for spread are high rainfall, with gums in disturbed sites where soil compaction is prevalent. I ran a presentation on the syndrome for The Qld Arboricultural Association earlier this year.

To see a copy of the original report check our website – Education | NaturaCulture. The Canker Syndrome update report (29/8/12) is second from the end in the list of past reports/articles. I made comparison to the canker disease Chrysoporthe cubensis in the update report. I would greatly appreciate feedback on the report from the British profession as I am getting nothing from Australia.

I discussed this in an earlier Arb Talk thread under the name Popcorn Canker.

Bad news if its in the UK too.

Regards Cassian (expat Brit Merrist Wood Arb).

[Cassian]

Note - Tree Mover -The pics above are indicative of early symptoms, our experience in Oz is that with drought the disease is considerably slowed

(3 year timeframe to ringbarked and standing dead with high rainfall). If this is new to Britain then with the climate there I would expect rapid spread and gum decline/death. Check pages 8-9 of the report for symptoms ranging from early to advanced. I just remembered the old post was named Sudden Gum Death... Regards Cassian.

[Treemover]

Cassian, thanks for that. I really hope your wrong ( for our sake) though, as these trees were in Northern Ireland and this sounds like something from a Hollywood movie.

 

Several had similar symptoms, pictured being the worst. All were picus tested, and others were sound. Whereas pictured, had decay. I don't run tapatalk so apologies for delay with picus pics. But I'll pop them up for what's it worth later.

 

This is not great news! But client sent away samples for analysis. Yet to hear outcome.

 

I'll keep you posted.

 

Thanks again

Edited December 26, 2012 by Treemover

[daltontrees]

Not another new one to the UK, I hope?

Here in the west of Scotland all but a few Eucalyptus have been wiped out by what I assumed to be two successive hard winters of 09/10 and 10/11. They seemed to cause splits in the bark especially at the base but sometimes extending right up teh trunk. We took a lot of dead ones down , they generally had extensive mycelial sheets beneath large areas of separated bark, which could be pulled off like large plates. In effect what seemed to have lkilled the trees was not so much rupture due to frost but fungal infection admitted into and under bark by frost splits. These were all E. gunnii.

This could I suppose be confused with rapid cambium killling of Armillaria? I haven't had a chance to look at any survivors to see if they were partly frost damaged but if they were and had a degree of bark separation they might well look like your pictures. Also of course I can't say whether recovery has taken place in any of the survivors.

The standing deadwood of the victims seemed to show little short-term loss of strength and when felled had only zonal discoloration.

I hope this observation is helpful in some wy and that for the sake of the remaining Eucalyptus population you tree has only got the same problem and not this nasty sounding Australian business.

[Cassian]

Hi Treemover, the pics you supplied are classic VTA symptoms of what we would call early to mid range symptoms of canker syndrome. When I say we I make reference to a relatively small team or arborists two at management level working for the S.E. Qld Utility company Energex (we were contracted to) and one who was my assistant working on the Energex VTA Program (Jonathan Cowan brother to UK Andrew Cowan), a project which ran from 2007 until June 2012 (currently suspended due to Qld Gov cutbacks). In the case of advanced symptoms once the trees are at the point of failure DBH’s are generally up around 1.5 to 2.5m, though we have seen scores of young trees (DBH .5 to 1m) with early CS symptoms. The embrittled wood is expected to be soft rot induced and looks very much like a brown rot type decay in the hardwood, where as decay in the sapwood looks like a white rot (I understand this is normal for simultaneous soft rot wood decays in Europe). We have very limited data on wood decay fungi in Australia, with very limited data shared between Australian arborists. I will be very interested to hear news on the clients analyisis.

[Cassian]

Hi Jules,

Your description relating to the trees above has parallels to Gums with advanced CS symptoms, with large panels of thickened bark likewise coming of in sheets though not until the final stages of decline/death. Any chance of supplying some pictures? This disease is very new to S.E. Qld gums. The only arborists here that I am aware of who are familiar with CS have been involved with the Energex VTA Program. We did not see this prior to 2009.

[Treemover]

[treeseer]

Gad, that's more than I would have suspected--it appears to be moving straight through to the 2 sinuses opposite the signs of infection.