Shade Trees Being Hurt By Plant Disease
Posted on: Monday, 28 November 2005, 15:00 CST
Bacterial leaf scorch is reportedly severely affecting U.S. trees grown to provide shade, help clean the air, reduce noise, and improve aesthetics.
Plant pathologists with the St. Paul, Minn.-based, American Phytopathological Society say the plant disease known as bacterial leaf scorch affects such shade tree species as the American elm, red maple, sweet gum, sycamore, and several oak species. The disease has been found in street plantings, small woodlots and landscapes across the eastern United States, as far west as Texas.
Ann Brooks Gould, associate extension specialist at Rutgers University, says current loss of value plus replacement costs for older trees affected by the disease is about $8,000 per tree.
BLS is caused by a bacterial pathogen, Xylella fastidiosa, which is spread by insects. Symptoms of BLS are similar to those caused by environmental stresses, resulting in the disease being often overlooked or misdiagnosed.
According to Gould, management options of BLS in urban trees include maintaining plant vigor, removing infected trees and branches that have died from the disease, avoiding planting highly susceptible trees and designing new tree plantings with a diverse complement of species.
Source: United Press International
Related Articles
- Researchers Study Global Patterns Of Plant Growth
- Biologists Work Towards Documenting The Tree Of Life
- Vietnam Houses New Plant, Animal Species
- Oral Epithelial Overexpression of IL-1[Alpha] Causes Periodontal Disease
- Urban Sprawl Threatens Plants, Animals
- Wildlife Species Audit Nears End in Georgia
- Scientists Find 178 New Species in Oceans
- Botanists Baffled By Fred's Plant ; New Species Found at Lakeland
- Cerebroside Elicitor Confers Resistance to Fusarium Disease in Various Plant Species
- Conservation of Endangered Species Through Plant Tissue Culture in Mexican Botanical Gardens
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds