Where did the chestnut blight pathogen originate?
Chestnut blight, plant disease caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (formerly known as Endothia parasitica). Accidentally imported from Asia, the disease was first observed in 1904 in the New York Zoological Gardens.
What caused the American chestnut blight?
Chestnut blight, or chestnut bark disease, is caused by an introduced fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill) Barr, (formerly Endothia parasitica [Murrill] Anderson & Anderson). The fungus enters wounds, grows in and under the bark (Fig.
What was the location of the original blight fungus?
In 1913 a USDA plant explorer found the fungus in its native land of China [7]. There, it was hardly a pathogen, colonizing dying twigs and small patches of bark.
What fungus caused the chestnut blight that reshaped the North American forest?
Between 1904 and 1940, some 3.5 billion American chestnut trees, the giants of the Appalachian hardwood forest, succumbed to a fungal blight called Cryphonectria parasitica.
Is chestnut blight still around?
Despite its decimation as a lumber and nut-crop species, the American chestnut has not gone extinct. It is considered functionally extinct because the blight fungus does not kill the tree’s root system underground.
Which fungus affects the American chestnut?
American chestnut is the most susceptible species to chestnut blight, a fungus that was introduced to North America in the early 1900s. This fungus reduced the great American chestnut forest of the Appalachian Mountains to a simple sucker sprout population that rarely produces any nuts.
What killed all the American chestnut trees?
The tree’s demise started with something called ink disease in the early 1800s, which steadily killed chestnut in the southern portion of its range. The final blow happened at the turn of the 20th century when a disease called chestnut blight swept through Eastern forests.
How do you prevent chestnut blight?
The basics of the soil compress method are simple: you must keep the blight canker, and the entire trunk all around it at least a foot above and below any signs of blight, covered with moist soil for at least a couple of months.
Where did the blight of chestnut trees come from?
The pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (formerly Endothia parasitica) is a member of the Ascomycota (sac fungi) taxon. It is native to South East Asia and was introduced into Europe and North America in the 1900s. The fungus spread rapidly and caused significant tree loss in both regions.
How did Antonio Biraghi discover chestnut blight?
Antonio Biraghi, an Italian pathologist, happened to spot mature chestnut trees with the characteristic orange fungus still growing in an abandoned orchard. Biraghi inspected cankers under the microscope and saw this fungus looked different from any he had seen before.
Are there any chestnut trees that are resistant to blight?
The final blow happened at the turn of the 20th century when a disease called chestnut blight swept through Eastern forests. But, after decades of work breeding trees, The American Chestnut Foundation, a partner in the Forest Service’s effort to restore the tree, is close to being able to make a blight-resistant American chestnut available.
How did chestnut blight affect the Smoky Mountains?
The chestnut blight, caused by a fungus accidentally introduced from Asia, changed everything. By the 1940s the blight had killed an estimated four billion American chestnut trees nationwide. Where before about a third of all trees in the Smoky Mountains were chestnuts, today even single spindly saplings are rare.
