Forest Pathology

Pathology: the branch of forestry concerned with

diseases and disorders of forest trees, individually
and collectively

Nursery disease: Damping off disease

Forest disease: Bamboo blight, Top dying of Sundri,
Wilting of sissoo
Bamboo Blight:
•Bamboo blight is a serious disease
because it attack the growing culm,
stops growth and leading to dieback
which may in some cases kill the
culm completely.

•Even if this only happens in a few

culms of a season’s growth this could
represent a major loss to the farmer.

•Bamboo blight was first recorded

from Rajshahi area in 1970 by
Rahman and Zethner (1971).

•Bamboo blight has been observed in

most parts of the country except the
Hill tracts.
Bamboo structure
Symptoms of bamboo blight:

•Bamboo produces new culms from buds on

subterranean rhizomes during the monsoon,
generally in june and july. They do not all appear at
one time and some may develop as late as
September.

•New culms attain elongation growth in about 12

weeks. It follows that the culms reach their full
height in about October through to December.

•A growing new culm is a highly condenses version

of what will eventually become a fully grown culm.
Inside are all the internodes ready to expand in
sequence from the bottom to the top,

•outside are the culm sheaths overlapping in densely

packed layers and ready to support and protect the
internodes until they have fully expanded. The culm
sheaths eventually die and usually fall away.
 
•The best time for observing bamboo blight is
from September to December in Bangladesh.
• 
•The first sign of blight is the premature death
of culm sheath which can be easily removed,
unlike healthy one which remain tightly
attached until the internode has stopped
growing.

• Wet rotten patches develop on the

internodes, often associated with depterous
larvae.

•These necrotic (dead) areas spread rapidly in

the tender culm and the apical region dies.
Causal factor of Bamboo blight:
Sarocladium oryzae
 
Bamboos attacked by Bamboo blight:
Only four bamboos are attacked by blight. These are B. arundinacea, B. balcooa, B. tulda, B. vulgaris.
 
Control measures:
•Cutting and removing blighted bamboos,
•burning the debris of clumps in situ and
•addition of new soil to clumps promoted the production of higher number of surviving healthy bamboos in
comparison with that of the controls.
• 
•The direct effect of burning may result in a reduction in the inocula potential of pathogenic fungus which existed in
the debris or in the top few centimeters of soil.
• 
•The indirect effect may be due to the addition of ash in the soil which might have acted as a manure.
• 
•Drenching (soaking) soils of the bamboo clumps which had bamboo blight with either Copper oxychloride or Dithane
M-45 proved to be beneficial as compared to the control clumps.
• 
•Dithane M-45 soil drench was superior than Copper oxychloride treatment. The difference was not, however,
significant because of high variability among the clumps.
• 
Top dying of Sundri:
Causes:
•Soil salinity plays a vital role and governs the distribution of sundry in the
Sundarban.

•Burial of pneumatophores, production of reduced number of

pneumatophores and lenticels on the pneumatophores create condition of
reduced soil aeration affecting metabolism in the root system. This is
considered as the primary cause of top dying of sundry in the Sundarban.

•Defficiency of micronutrients (e.g. Mn and Zn) and presence of higher

level of calcium are associated with top dying of Sundari.

•Greater opening in the canopy, loranthus infestations, higher dbh classes

are associated with severity of top dying of Sundari.
•Insect infestation of sapwood and wood decay fungi have linear positive
association.
•Biotic factors such gall canker caused by Botryosphaeria ribis, root rot and
resultant dieback caused by Ganoderma lucidum.

•Cracked perennial gall cankers are often seen associated with dead
branches of sundri. The condition was a found to be associated with a fungus
Botryosphaeria ribis . Borers and wood decay fungi also attack such trees.
•Death of small twigs may be due to the occurrence of gall cankers, Fig. Gall Cankers
Management strategy for the top dying of sundry:
 
•Salvage felling of top dying Sundri is recommended for the following seasons:
•Removals of top dying Sundri trees are necessary to reduce further build up of top dying and
progressive deterioration of the health of the Sundarban.

•Impact of salvage felling on regeneration and recruitment of sundry has been found to be
insignificant.
•Top dying Sundri trees suffer from further degrade induced by decay fungi and insects and
cause degradation of 42%. This is a heavy economic loss in forest terms.

•Sequence of salvage felling of top dying sundry among the compartments in the Sundarban
•Considering top dying ranking index of the compartments top dying salvage should start with
the worst affected compartment and should continue to progressively lesser severe ones.
•Care should be taken not to create too much opening in the canopy because of top dying
salvage felling as that will aggravate the severity of top dying of sundry in the remaining crops.

•Top dying sundry trees with 50% or more canopy damage should only included for salvage
felling.
•All dead and decaying trees should be removed from the forest floor as that will reduce the
build up of wood decay fungi and thereby reduce the extent of degrade due to top dying.
• It has been reported that the frequency of top dying affected trees are greater at the bank of
rivers, canals and creeks.
•It is suggested that careful extraction of top dying affected Sundri and replacement with
suitable species may be useful in the management of the disease.

•Different investigators consider the

following factors to be responsible for the
incidence of the top dying disease:
•increase in salinity of soil and water,
•and decrease in flow of fresh water from
the upstreams;
• increase in siltation in the banks of the
rivers and channels;
•decrease in mineral nutrients in the forest
floor;
•attack by insect pests at the top of the
plant or fungal/microbial infection at the
root region.
•Symptoms:
•Top dying disease name of a disease of sundri (H. fomes) trees showing symptoms from
the top of the main stem of the affected plant and gradual progression of the symptoms
downward.

•The affected plant looks like leafless bald headed one, distinguishable from the other
healthy ones. This symptom is often associated with one or a few swellings on the
diseased stem in the form of knots.

•About 18 percent of the Sundri trees of the mangrove have been affected and thus the
disease poses a threat in terms of economic loss in millions of dollars.

• Possible reason(s) of the disease could not be ascertained during investigations carried
out for the last two decades.
•Most of the researchers/ecologists point out to the conjugate effects of a number of
ecological factors that allow infection and colonization of microbes and invasion of insect
pests.
•Survey conducted by Overseas Development Authority (ODA) reported that almost all
the compartments of the Sundarbans, are affected by the disease in various degrees.
•
 Sundarban: located in south west
of Bangladesh.
Area: covers approximately 10,000
square kilometres (3,900 sq mi)
4 ranges, 55 compartments, 8
blocks
Wilting disease of Sissoo:
Symptoms:
•This disease manifests itself during rains between July and September. Trees of advanced age are usually
susceptible to the disease.
•Symptoms of the disease include yellowing and death of leaves. Eventually the entire tree presents a yellow
appearance.
•In later stages, leaves drop off rendering the branches increasingly bare.
•Affected trees die within a few months.
•The pathogen is mostly restricted to roots and in some cases may extend to stem bases. The outer sapwood
exhibits a characteristic pink to reddish pink stain.
• In diseased roots, vessels are plugged with hyphae and infiltered with jelly-like substances which hinder sap flow
to the crown resulting in wilt symptoms.

Cause:
•Sissoo wilt is caused by Fusarium solani.
•F. solani is a normal soil inhabitant and possesses wide powers of saprophytic colonization. The fungus exhibits
tolerance to a wide range of pH in culture with optimum growth around pH 4.6. pH of healthy and diseased roots
lies between 4.6 to 5.2 and is , therefore, ideal for infection by the wilt pathogen.
 
Control:
•Wilt in sissoo is common in plantations raised on stiff (hard) soils with inadequate drainage. If sissoo is raised on
a site having light textured soil with adequate soil moisture and good drainage, trees grow healthy free from wilt
disease.
 
Fig. Wilting disease of Sissoo
• Have to read:
• Diseases diagnosis: Die back of Keora, Heart rot, Root
rot, leaf blight, Die back, Canker, Wilt, Decay,
Mistletoe infection of Gamer.: Symptoms, causal
organisms, control.
• Management: Principles of forest disease
management and control,
• What are the causes of deterioration of wood?
• Write down the methods of deterioration of wood
decay.
Heartwood and Sapwood:
Sapwood is the living, outermost portion of a woody stem
or branch, while heartwood is the dead, inner wood, which
often comprises the majority of a stem’s cross-section. You
can usually distinguish sapwood from heartwood by its
lighter color.

Heart rot:
•In trees, heart rot is a fungal disease that causes the decay
of wood at the center of the trunk and branches.

•Fungi enter the tree through wounds in the bark and

decay the heartwood. The diseased heartwood softens
resulting in trees being structurally weaker and prone to
breakage.

•A good indication of heart rot is the presence of

mushrooms or fungus conks on the tree.
The bracket fungus Fistulina hepatica is one of
many that cause heart rot.
Biological cause
•Heart rot is caused by fungi entering the trunk of the tree through wounds in the bark. These wounds are
areas of the tree where bare wood is exposed and usually a result of improper pruning, fire damage, dead
branches, insects or even animal damage.

•The fungal spores enter the exposed wounds, germinate within the wood tissues and slowly ingest the
heartwood. The infection is a very slow process and can take from months to years, depending on
conditions and tree health.

•An average fungus will advance in the heartwood by 6–8 centimeters per year and extensive development
in the wood tissue is needed before mushrooms or conks are produced.

Impact
•Heart rot fungi have both a huge economic and environmental impact. The fungi only target the
nonliving wood tissue of the heartwood and do not affect the living sapwood.

•Initially, infected heartwood is discolored but not structurally compromised. As the fungi grow they decay
more wood and the tissue becomes increasingly soft and weak.

•The tree can still grow around the decayed heartwood because the live wood tissue is not affected. The
growth around decayed areas of heartwood creates structural weaknesses in the tree. Trees with extensive
decay are more susceptible to broken branches and trunks.
•
•Logging
Heart rot causes huge profit loss in the logging industry every year due to damaged and decayed
timber. It is estimated that about one third of annual timber (20 billion board feet) harvest is lost
due to some form of rot.

• Trees wounded from machinery or other falling trees and are then more susceptible to heart rot.

Environmental
Heart rot and other tree disease serve as factors of environmental change. This is magnified in
areas that are not prone to large scale dynamic disturbances like wildfires or are dominated by
old growth timber.

•In older growth forests, trees are unable to combat heart rot effectively because they grow at
a much slower pace.

•Extensive rot causes these trees to be more susceptible to high winds and trunk fracture. As
the old growth dies out, it allows new growth to take its place, altering the dynamic of the
environment.

• Decaying trees also provide shelter to animals as well as microorganisms. Through this
process of dynamic change, heart rot contributes to biologically diverse habitats.
•Prevention and control
The prevention of heart rot can be a very difficult task but, there are effective measures to minimize damage. These
methods include facilitating healthy growth, minimizing wounds and proper pruning of branches.

•Providing a tree with the necessary nutrients, water and growing conditions will promote healthy growth and
minimize rot.
•The bark is the tree's main defense against disease; reducing the amount of large wounds and bare wood,
especially in older trees, helps prevent rot.

Pruning techniques

•Donot wound the branch collar, make cuts at the base of branch adjacent
•to the branch collar.
DO not cut branch collar
during pruning

The wrinkles in the branch collar are the

tree’s first line of defense against the
invasion of micro-organisms. The final cut
should be made just outside these
wrinkles.
Pathogenic and wood decay fungi

Reference Book: An Introduction to Forest Pathology by Dr. S.S. Nagi

Page no.78

What is the difference between pathogenic and wood decay fungi?

•Pathogenic fungi are fungi that cause disease in humans or other organisms. The study
of pathogenic fungi is referred to as "medical mycology.”

•A wood-decay fungus is a variety of fungus that digests moist wood, causing it to rot.
Some species of wood-decay fungi attack dead wood, such as brown rot, and some, such
as Armillaria (honey fungus), are parasitic and colonize living trees.

•Fungi that not only grow on wood but actually cause it to decay, are called lignicolous
fungi. Various lignicolous fungi consume wood in various ways; for example, some attack
the carbohydrates in wood and some others decay lignin.

•Wood-decay fungi can be classified according to the type of decay that they cause. The
best-known types are brown rot, soft rot, and white rot
•Brown rot:
•Brown-rot fungi break down hemicellulose
and cellulose. Cellulose is broken down by
hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) that is produced
during the breakdown of hemicellulose.

•Because hydrogen peroxide is a small

Brown rot
molecule, it can diffuse rapidly through the
wood, leading to a decay.

•As a result of this type of decay, the wood

shrinks, shows a brown discoloration, and
cracks into roughly cubical pieces; hence the
name brown rot or cubical brown rot.
Brown-rot fungi of particular economic importance include Serpula
lacrymans (true dry rot), Fibroporia vaillantii (mine fungus), and Coniophora
puteana (cellar fungus),

Soft rot
•Soft-rot fungi secrete cellulase from their hyphae, an enzyme that breaks
down cellulose in the wood. This leads to the formation of microscopic
cavities inside the wood, and sometimes to a discoloration and
cracking pattern similar to brown rot.

•Examples of soft-rot-causing fungi are Chaetomium, Ceratocystis, and

Kretzschmaria deusta.
White rot:

•White rots break down lignin and cellulose and

commonly cause rotted wood to feel moist, soft,
spongy, or stringy and appear white or yellow.

•White-rot fungi break down the lignin in wood,

leaving the lighter-colored cellulose behind

•some of them break down both lignin and

cellulose.

•Honey mushroom (Armillaria spp.) is a white-rot

fungus notorious for attacking living trees.

•Other white-rot fungi include the turkey tail,

artist's conch, and tinder fungus
Plant Quarantine
A condition, period of time, or place in which a person, animal, plant, vehicle, or amount
of material suspected of carrying an infectious agent is kept in confinement or isolated
in an effort to prevent disease from spreading.

A quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of persons; it is a 'state of

enforced isolation'.

Plant Quarantine Act-2011

The Director, Plant Protection Wing, Department of Agricultural Extension shall be

deemed with the National Plant Quarantine Authority.

All the officers and employees of the Plant Protection Wing, Department of Agricultural
Extension shall act as the officers and employees of the Authority until a separate
organization established under sub-section.
History

•The word "quarantine" originates from the Venetian dialect form of the Italian
quaranta giorni, meaning 'forty days'. This is due to the 40 day isolation of ships and
people before entering the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia.

•This was practised as a measure of disease prevention related to the Black Death.
Between 1348 and 1359, the Black Death wiped out an estimated 30% of Europe's
population, and a significant percentage of Asia's population.

• The original document from 1377, which is kept in the Archives of Dubrovnik, states
that before entering the city, newcomers had to spend 30 days (a trentine) in a
restricted place (originally nearby islands) waiting to see whether the symptoms of Black
Death would develop. Later, isolation was prolonged to 40 days and was called
quarantine.[6]
Thank you
 Mycorrhiza

What is Mycorrhiza?
Mycorrhizas are highly evolved non-pathogenic symbiotic association between roots of most
vascular plants and certain specialized soil fungi (Basidiomycetes, Ascomycetes and
Zygomyectes) that colonize the cortical tissues of roots during periods of active plant growth
both in natural environment and in cultivation (Miller and Jastrow, 1994; Smith and Read,
1997).

In this interdependent mutualistic relationship, the host plant receives mineral nutrients
from the soil, increases tolerance to stresses (by affecting water relations and pathogen
resistance) and the fungi obtain photosynthetically derived carbon compounds from the
host for their survival through mycorrhizal hyphae.

•The mycorrhizal associations are classified into seven different categories on the basis of
their morphology, morphogenate and physiological features.

•Out of the seven different types of mycorrhiza only ectomycorrhiza and endomycorrhiza are
considered here because of their wide occurrence and their importance in relation to the
improvement of forest trees in Bangladesh.
AM is the most widespread and important
root symbiosis. They occur practically in all
families of angiosperms, gymnosperms,
many pteridophytes and bryophytes.

In AM association, Zygomycetes fungi

produce arbuscule hyphae and vesical
within root cortex cells.
Arbuscule is highly branched, small
cauliflower like organ occurs within the
cortical cells and Vesicles in bladder like
organ occurs inside and outside the host
tissues.

Arbuscule is referred the site of transfer of

mineral nutrients from the fungi to the host
plants and Vesicle serves as storage organ
for the plant nutrients and other products.
 
History:
The word Mycorrhiza derived from the Greek words; Mykes means mushrooms and rhiza means roots.
Coined by Frank in 1885, a distinguished forest pathologist of Germany.

He defined this relationship as Mycorrhizae.

This fungi belongs to Order Glomales and Class Zygomycetes, asexually reproducing soil-borne fungi.

Benefits of mycorrhiza:

It improved crop yields especially in infertile soils.

Mycorrhizas enhance the uptake of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Calcium, Na, Fe, Cu, Bo, Zn, Al and Strontium:
but reduces the uptake of K and Mn.

Some adequate Phosphorous nutrition is required for root nodule formation for leguminous trees;
mycorrhizae may be a precondition for nodulation under deficient soil conditions.

Besides this, it has been further established that the seedlings with mycorrhizal fungi are immune to various
diseases and pests.

Mycorrhizal infection reduces susceptibility, or increases tolerance of roots to soil-borne pathogens like
Phytophthora spp., Chalara elegans, Fusarium sp., and Pythium sp. and nematodes (Bondoux and Perrin,
1982; Bagyaraj, 1984) and reduce the incidence of root diseases.
•The mycorrhizal fungal hyphae are involved with the scavenging and retention of nutrient ions and with the
creation of an aggregate system that acts as a control point for accrual and mineralization of organic matter in
the soil.

•At a larger scale, the mycorrhizal association, by its involvement in nutrient accumulation and retention,
creates a system that reduces erosion and leaching loss of nutrients.
• 
•It supplies mineral to roots in the soils.

•The external hyphal network of AM fungi plays an important role in nutrient uptake, especially for those
ions that are not mobile in soil solution.

•It enhances the nutrient absorption from the soil solution.

•It improves plant growth when there is little Phosphate is present in soil.

•The major transfer of Phosphate from the fungus to the plant occurs in those root cells that contain
arbuscules.
•It acts as transfer paths for nutrients in nutrient cycling processes.

•The VAM is concentrated on that uppermost soil horizon where organic matter is to be found and where
most root growth occurs.
 
Fig: Mycorrhizal
associations with root
Fig. Mycorrhizal associations