Morphological features of Camarosporium pini – the fungus associated to health state degradation in Austrian and Ponderosa pine

Abstract

Ivanová, H., 2017. Morphological features of Camarosporium pini -the fungus associated to health state degradation in Austrian and Ponderosa pine. Folia Oecologica, 44: 54-57.The subject of this study is escalated occurrence of the pathogenic fungus Camarosporium pini in the needle tissue of symptomatic trees P. nigra and P. ponderosa var. jeffreyi growing in urbanized settings and parks. C. pini induces severe infections and initiates a blight and premature loss of second-year foliage in pine trees. The fungus was identified microscopically and on base of morphological keys. The affected needles displayed a distinct bluish-grey necrotic band in the centre. On the surface of infected needles, there were formed pycnidia producing brown, oval conidia with three transversal and one or two vertical walls. Disease symptoms, some important characteristics in pure culture, and distinctive morphological features of C. pini associated to the health state degradation in Austrian and Ponderosa pine are described and compared. Cumulative effects of these stressful biotic and various abiotic factors may explain the current situation concerning the decline in the P. nigra and P. ponderosa var. jeffreyi in Slovakia.

Selected climatic variables in Slovakia are favourable to the development of Dothistroma needle blight

“…In southern and Central Europe, Dothistroma species will have reached a steady-state, with little spread to new forests, although disease severity may still be increasing. Over the last 15-20 years, forests in Slovakia, also due to climate change, were exposed to an unpredicted frequency and intensity of harmful agents (Správa o lesnom hospodárstve v Slovenskej republike za rok 2018, 2019), and pine stands were exposed to several pathogenic organisms (Hečková et al, 2010;Ivanová and Bernadovičová, 2010;Ivanová, 2017;. Approaches to manage and mitigate the effects of climate change on forest diseases include the acquisition and/or synthesis of basic knowledge about tree species and pathosystems, as well as the development of better models that will yield more accurate predictions (Sturrock, 2007).…”

Comparison of two Coniochaeta species (C. ligniaria and C. malacotricha) with a new pathogen of black pine needles - Sordaria macrospora

“…Ascospores were dark brown, strongly flattened, 10.5-13 × 9-10.5 × 6-7.5 µm in size and had the face view oblong to oblong-elliptical and the side view elliptical, with a prominent germ slit completely encircling the spore. The fungus Sordaria macrospora formed 10% of the cultivated isolates, followed up by the fungi of the genus Pinus nigra ( Juhásová et al 2004;Ivanová & Bernadovičová 2010;Pastirčáková et al 2014). An important finding is that this fungus was identified for the first time as a new pathogen in association with the damaged needles of Pinus nigra in Slovakia.…”