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Let's investigate case of dying trees

Symptoms show up suddenly after storm unlocks fungal disease

By Jim Chatfield
Special to the Beacon Journal

Published on Saturday, Aug 02, 2008

One of my main jobs is troubleshooting what makes good plants go bad. In this role, I am a Quincy, or more modernly a CSI investigator with a plant diagnostics twist. More specifically, I come at diagnostics from a plant pathological angle, focusing on infectious diseases. Here are a few recent cases that illustrate some important points about plant diseases.

First, still under investigation, is the Case of the Pathological Pine. The scene is a golf course, where dozens of Austrian pines are dying. It is not quite time for a plantopsy, but soon. Nearby white pines, as well as spruces, are relatively healthy.

The problem developed soon after a hailstorm in late May. University of Kentucky plant pathologist Dr. John Hartman and I wondered whether the problem was Diplodia tip blight, a common and serious fungal disease of Austrian and other two-needled pines, but only rarely causing significant problems on the five-needled white pine and solitary-needled conifers (needles not in clusters), such as spruce or fir.

Hartman is an expert on the latent infections of Diplodia on pine, in which the fungus infects shoot and stem tissue of the tree, but then infection is arrested but not executed; a layer of cells walls off the fungus. These infections then lie more or less dormant for months and even years.

 

We noted that the cones on these Austrian pines had ample fruiting bodies of the Diplodia fungus, but there clearly had been no obvious symptoms of infection on the needles and stems of the trees
before this year. In fact, these 20- to 30-foot trees were apparently quite healthy before this year. We believe the stress that followed the injury of the severe hailstorm allowed the walled-off latent infections to break jail, resulting in severe systemic Diplodia blight throughout the branches of these pines.

We will follow this case closely in the lab, testing tissue samples for the Diplodia fungus. The presence, however, of extensive Diplodia fruiting bodies on the Austrian pine cones, the sudden onset of the disease with no evidence of other factors, the occurrence of the problem on this susceptible pine but not on others that have resistance to Diplodia, the characteristic symptoms of stunted needles and shoot dieback on the Austrian pines, and the research on latent infections with this fungal pathogen are all smoking guns that are building the case against Diplodia.

It also reinforces the case against Austrian pines in most Midwest landscapes. In one study in Lexington, Ky., Hartman found that of 549 Austrian pines surveyed in 1992, only 72 had survived Diplodia tip blight as of last year. That, coupled with the ticking time bomb aspect of this disease, suggested pretty convincing indictments, though we should not rush to judgment, at least in this latest case. Stay tuned.

Trials and treatments

That episode took up a little more space than anticipated, so here is a quick rundown on another case: the Case of the Vanishing Venturia. Apple scab, a fungal disease caused by Venturia inaequalis that affects crab apples and apples, so reliably occurs year after year on susceptible cultivars, such as Spring Snow, that my fellow crabophile Erik Draper of Ohio State University Extension in Geauga County and I felt confident we would easily be able to research the effectiveness of certain fungicide and biological control treatments this year in some trials near Circleville in south-central Ohio.

A key to scab is spring rains, so all should have worked well. After all, spring was a deluge — right? Well, it was here, but not so much, at least at crucial times, in certain areas of southern Ohio. So our trials were pretty much a bust — not enough scab for good comparison of different treatments. This is a reminder of the critical importance of the specifics of the environmental component of plant disease: It all depends, not on rainfall in general theory, but on the actual rain at critical times where the plants are growing.

Let's save room for more of our pathological puzzles until another column, but for now, let's turn from the rots and blights and note the return of one of the most wonderful wildflowers of summer. I am not talking about the ironweed and Joe Pye weed, bringing their electric purple and pastel salmon colors that presage late summer and the coming autumn, but rather the clear scarlets of cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis).

Scarlet flower can be found at Johnson Woods State Nature Preserve near Orrville, along the wetland boardwalk, as usual, not in abundance, but a great treat when sighted. I would try to describe the purity of the color, but could not approach naturalist John Burroughs, who is quoted in Jack Sanders' book The Secrets of Wildflowers: ''It is not so much something colored as color itself.''

As Sanders notes in his book, cardinal flower has protandrous flowers: The bottom flowers on the spires are pollen-producing male flowers, with female flowers opening further up the spire. Pollinating hummingbirds visit these lower flowers first, since they are rewarded with higher concentrations of nectar there. They then move to upper flowers, depositing the pollen to the receptive stigmas of female flowers.

A great human reward, though, is their beauty. In fact, as Sanders notes, cardinal flower was the winner of a nationwide vote in the 1940s of 1,000 botanists and naturalists as the showiest wildflower in the country. In the words of Burroughs:

''The cardinal (flower) burns with an intense fire, and fairly lights up the little dark nooks where it glasses itself in the still water. It is a heartthrob of color on the bosom of the dark solitude.''

Jim Chatfield is a horticultural educator with Ohio State University Extension. If you have questions about caring for your garden, write: Plant Lovers' Almanac, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640. Include your phone number.

 

One of my main jobs is troubleshooting what makes good plants go bad. In this role, I am a Quincy, or more modernly a CSI investigator with a plant diagnostics twist. More specifically, I come at diagnostics from a plant pathological angle, focusing on infectious diseases. Here are a few recent cases that illustrate some important points about plant diseases.

Get the full article here.


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