Global distribution of the pitch canker fungus

Abstract

The pitch canker fungus, Fusarium subglutinans f. sp. pini, causes diseases of pines in the United States, Haiti, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and South Africa. Pitch canker was first reported in Virginia pine in North Carolina in 1946. Although the disease was reported in Haitian pine in 1953, pitch canker was generally considered a disease of pines in the southeastern U.S. until the mid-1980s. Since 1986, however, pitch canker has seriously damaged Monterey pine in coastal central California. By the late-1980's pitch canker had also been reported in Japan and Mexico. In the 1990's, the pathogen was reported to induce a root rot of containerized Pinus patula seedlings in South Africa and the mortality of radiata pine seedlings in bare-root nurseries in Spain.

Citation

Dwinell, L. David. 1998. Global distribution of the pitch canker fungus. Current and Potential Impacts of Pitch Canker in Radiata Pine: Proceedings of the IMPACT Monterey Workshop, Monterey, California