Re: "Golden Oak of Cyprus"

Loren,
I'd just like to make some comments to your message (below) after being
away from my email for a week.

----- Original Message -----
From: Loren Russell <loren@PEAK.ORG>
To: <K1MIZE@aol.com>
Cc: <otterpt@macn.bc.ca>; <bade@math.berkeley.edu>;
<Medit-Plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 1999 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: "Golden Oak of Cyprus"


> >
> > Diane:
> >
> > Thanks for this interesting bit of info.  Perhaps that is why you
don't


> It should be pointed out that the ectomycorhizae associated with
arbutus
> are NOT species-specific, and it's extremely likely that suitable
fungi
> are present in any soil that's near the root-zone of an established
native
> tree [or some non-natives, such as birch or oak].

This is true except as stated before, where the mycorrhizae have been
destroyed by the cultivation of a lawn or similar damage to the tree's
environs.  In this case, you see a failing tree.

And the spore-fall is
> such that the fungi will certainly find any seedling madrone.

Due to the large madrona forests here, we have countless seedlings that
do not survive for more than two or three years because the seeds are
dispersed by birds and not always in suitable places for the Arbutus
tree.  I don't think the spore find the Arbutus trees.  The seed has to
be lucky and land in the right place.  The birds are a necessary factor
in seed dispersal, removing the
pulp from the sharp little seeds.

IMHO, any
> ectomycorhizal product is probably useless, unless you're propagating
tree
> seedlings in a sterile compost.

I have not had any experience with the commercial product.
>
>
> Even in the wild, madrone is stressed by excessive wet: following the
past
> three wet winters in western Oregon, madrones have had serious fungal
> disease of the foliage.  As for summer-watering -- this is most likely
to
> cause loss [as it does for native oaks]
> when irrigation comes to established trees, which assuredly have
abundant
> ectomycorrhizae!

I cannot agree with your statements about this tree being stressed by
excessive wet winters.  Out healthy madrona forests have thrived through
the centuries in one of the highest winter rainfall areas of the world.
They were stressed in the El Nino winter of '97-'98 due to relatively
warm temperatures causing the trees to transpire, followed by normal
cold winds which they weren't prepared for.  The winter was the driest
on record followed by a long hot and dry summer (normal).  The Arbutus
tree's need for water was not met, even summer humidity was less than
normal.  In the spring of 1998, the trees had a phenomenal amount of
bloom (perhaps due to no bud loss here at its northern climatic limit),
even blooming on seemingly dead branches!

As a result, the trees are looking quite untidy in some areas with dead
leaves at branch tips and winter-killed branchlets all over.  Being an
evergreen tree, this kind of damage is messy-looking but abiotic.  The
mycologist at the Canadian Forest Service's Pacific Forestry Center in
Victoria has not found a level of fungal disease that would account for
this.  The trees will recover (in appearance) by growing new foliage and
eventually shedding the damaged ones.

Diane Pertson
Vancouver Island
>
> loren russell, corvallis, oregon
>
>
>
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