Southeast battles laurel wilt

In the spring, scientists with the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), Iowa State University and the Florida Division of Forestry provided the first description of a fungus responsible for the wilt of redbay trees along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

The fungus may also be responsible for wilts of other members of the laurel family, including sassafras, spicebush and avocado. Though the wilt was at first attributed to drought, it’s caused by a fungal pathogen and the exotic redbay ambrosia beetle, Xyleborus glabratus.

To connect fungus and beetle, researchers exposed redbay seedlings to X. glabratus beetles. The beetles tunneled into almost all of the plants, causing 70 percent of them to die, and they found the fungus in 91 percent of the beetle-attacked plants.

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For more: www.srs.fs.usda.gov/news/153.

August 2008