Lethal canker on main stem. Image: Linda Haugen, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org |
- Caused by Cryphonectria parasitica
- Enters through wounds in the bark and grows underneath it causing a canker
- Cankers are not easily seen on older thick barked trees until they crack open, exposing the buff-coloured inner bark and orange fungal fruiting structures.
- Eventually girdles and kills the branch above the infection point
- Branch loss stimulates the tree to sprout from below the infection point or from the collar region
- Can kill the tree if the trunk is girdled by a large canker or several cankers growing together
- The first signs of infection are often wilting, yellowing and death of leaves and shoots. Yellow-brown to orange cankers on young smooth barked trees or branches may also be early signs of infection
- The fungus is spread by animals that come into contact with the cankers and in the air after rain
- Chestnut blight occurs in Japan, China, Korea, USA, Canada, Italy and throughout Europe and infects chestnut, oak, red maple, shagbark hickory and eucalypts
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High priority pest of: Chestnuts
Scientific name: Cryphonectria parasitica
EPPRD Category: 2
Life Form: Fungus
Pest Documents
FS: fact sheet
CP: contingency plan
DP: diagnostic protocol
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