Project Number: WVA00133
CRIS Number: 0174168
BIOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT OF OAK WILT AND OTHER FOREST DISEASES
Investigators: MacDonald, W.
Performing Department: Plant & Soil Sciences -- 1825
Start Date: 02/01/1997
Termination Date: 09/30/2002
Reporting period: 01/01/2001 to 12/31/2001
Progress Report:
The potential for intra and interspecific root grafting is being tested as part of an oak wilt susceptibility test that compared 11 European white oak provenances (two species) with three North American species. When the oak test planting was established, trees were randomized in alternating inoculated and noninoculated rows. Some trees in noninoculated rows have expressed oak wilt symptoms as a result of root graft transmission. The species relationships among symptomatic noninoculated trees their inoculated neighbors was examined in 2000 and 2001; a final analysis will be made in the summer of 2002 to determine the occurrence and frequency of intra and interspecific root grafts.
Publications:
MacDonald, W.L., J. Pinon, F.H. Tainter and M.L. Double. 2001. European Oaks - Susceptible to Oak Wilt? Pages 131-137, in: Shade Tree Wilt Diseases, A National Proceedings on Wilt Diseases of Shade Trees. Cynthia L. Ash, ed. APS Press, St. Paul, MN.
Impact:
Because European oaks are planted as ornamentals in North America and could contract oak wilt, knowing their susceptibility will be useful in disease management. Root graft transmission of oak wilt is a primary mechanism of spread, therefore knowing the potential for tree-to-tree dissemination via root grafts is important in forest and urban settings.