Re: Some musings on current local tree diseases
- Subject: Re: Some musings on current local tree diseases
- From: T* &* M* R*
- Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 14:17:33 +1300
david feix wrote:
>
> I don't know if this newest possibly affected species
> made the international news as well, but researchers
> in California are worried. They've found the same
> Sudden Live Oak Death fungus growing at basal shoots
> of the mature Coast Redwood trees, and are still
> unsure if it will damage them or they just serve as a
> host species. Amongst the trees being examined, are
> several on the nearby University of Calif Berkeley
> campus.....
David
NZ is of course another country in the path of prevailing oceanic
westerlies, but I don't know of any suggestion that we are as yet
getting probems with this fungus. We have had minor problems for many
years with P cactorum attacking apples (almost always poor-draining
soils) and in a few places there have been quite severe losses (mainly
in odd gardens here and there) due to a spreading soil attack by a
Phytophthora on Rhododendrons. I am not sure if the species involved in
the latter attack has actually been identified. As far as I know this
remains only an occasional problem and is not increasing.
One factor in which we certainly differ her from western North America
is that we so far have no problems with acid rain and only very
localized smog (mainly in the City of Christchurch which is unlucky
enough to lie in a low basin which has poor air drainage). The
establishment and increase in this disease over several years certainly
semms to me most likely to have a base in some degredation of the
plants' living conditions.
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand, SW Pacific. 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Time
