[APWG] Watch for Dying Ailanthus (Possible Biocontrol)

[Plant Conservation]

Use the contact information below, I don't know anything more about this
issue.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jan Ferrigan [mailto:jferriga at mail.vt.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 4:41 PM
Subject: Be on the lookout for dying Ailanthus


If you see any Ailanthus trees that appear to be dying on their own
this summer, Jay Stipes, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at VA
Tech would be interested.  He posted the below request to extension
agents to be on the lookout for dying ailanthus trees.  He is
looking at a fungus as a possible bio-control.  If you see any, you
can contact him directly at (w)  540/231-7479 or treedr at vt.edu.  If
the dying tree looks like it is an area where it may have been
sprayed, you might want to check first to make sure it
hasn't.

Thanks.
Jan



Here's the burden of this missive.  As a pathologist for most of my
career, I tried to save trees!  Now, I have become a switch hitter, and
have joined the weed killers of my department and am now trying to kill
trees, actually now only one!  It is the exotic, weedy, proliferating,
invasive, stinky, nasty Ailanthus or Tree of "Heaven."  Official name:
Ailanthus altissima.  It is often confused with the roadside sumac with
the compound leaves.  Ailanthus has become a plague to highways,
homeowners, farmers,foresters and on almost any site where a native plant
or tree could grow.  Our survey, for instance, found that it grows at
least along one-third of the road distance from the Christiansburg I 81
exit up to I 64 at Staunton and east to Richmond!  That turns out to be at
least hundreds of thousands of trees.  Ailanthus grows singly or in
"clumps" (copses).  It  regenerates via seed and root sprouts, and exudes
a highly toxic chemical that kills many other plants.  In the late 1990s,
I found a fungus (Fusarium) associated with dying Ailanthus trees on
several diverse geographic sites; this suggests its potential as a
biocontrol agent (rather than the use of herbicides in this chemophobic
age).


Request:  If you are aware of any dying trees this growing season, I
would greatly appreciate your advising me of the exact site for my
visitation.  You might see dead or dying trees that may have
yellowing/flagging leaves.