Everyone can appreciate the beauty of landscape trees. Mature landscape trees can add considerable value to commercial and residential properties and offer many environmental benefits. However, significant economic losses can be suffered from tree mortality.
As reported by Science Daily, urban trees face unique and somewhat adverse growing conditions that reduce their structural strength. This creates additional stresses to the trees, which gives them a predisposition to disease. Wood-rotting fungi is a devastating pathogen, as it attacks the stability of urban trees, causing limbs and trees to fall, which has lead to property damage and injuries to people. This type of fungi is one of the primary causes of failure in standing trees, Science Daily notes.
Recently, a study in HortScience investigated 12 major root-rot and trunk-rot fungi in sapwood, specifically looking at the development of decay caused by the fungi. Scientists Manuela Baietto and A. Dan Wilson studied the relative wood decay potential and host specificity of damage associated with the wood-rotting fungi. Their goal was to determine the susceptibility or resistance of sapwood over 1-year and 2-year incubation periods. Through the study, strains of Armillaria mellea (honey mushroom), Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi mushroom), and Heterobasidion annosum (annosum root rot) showed the highest amount of decay potential in most tree species tested.
Additionally, the study revealed temporal changes caused decay rates to vary over time. The relative wood durability or resistance to decay was greater in gymnosperm wood types. Over all, Northern white cedar sapwood was most resistant to decay by all rot-fungi that were tested, showing little weight loss after 1 and 2 years of decay.
The data collected from this study can aid in making general assessments of the hazard status of urban trees. Additionally, Baietto and Wilson noted that it can be combined with data from urban tree assessment surveys to predict future tree failures, as well as estimate potential damage from falling tree limbs. Also, the results of this study will aid urban forestry professionals to develop individual tree inspection and maintenance schedules, which are important in avoiding personal and property damage that results from structural failures of landscaping trees.
We here at Cartwright Tree Care can help you avoid issues such as wood-rotting fungi. Give us a call today at 816-965-6758 to learn how we can help you protect the beauty of your landscape trees!
Photo credit: Robert L. Anderson, USDA Forest Service via Forestryimages.org.