[PCA] First Report of Beech Leaf Disease, Caused by Litylenchus crenatae mccannii, on American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) in Virginia (Open Access)

[Park, Margaret E]

Kantor et al., Plant Disease, October 20, 2021

Abstract:
Beech leaf disease (BLD) was first reported in 2012 in Lake County, Ohio on American beech trees (Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.). Since then, it spread across the Northeastern United States and has been reported from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, West Virginia, and Ontario, Canada. The symptoms of BLD are characterized by dark interveinal banding of leaves appearing soon after spring flush that become chlorotic and necrotic through autumn, resulting in canopy thinning in advanced stages, followed in some young trees by death. Litylenchus crenatae mccannii has similar morphological characteristics with Litylenchus crenatae reported on Fagus crenata from Japan. However that beech species has not shown BLD symptoms or yielded any L. crenatae mccannii in North America. There are several morphological differences between the two. The North American subspecies have shorter post-uterine sac, narrower body width in mature females, shorter tail in immature females, longer tail in mature females, and longer stylet in males when compared to the Japanese subspecies. BLD symptoms were found on American beech trees in Prince William Forest Park, Prince William County, Virginia in June, 2021. The affected leaves contained females, males, and juveniles with morphometrics consistent with L. crenatae mccannii. This represents the first report of BLD in Virginia. It is also approximately 300 miles south of the 2020 detection of BLD from New Cumberland, WV, and represents the southernmost detection of the disease and nematode in North America.

Link to article: https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PDIS-08-21-1713-PDN?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
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