Pacific Southwest Research Station

Pacific Southwest Research Station
800 Buchanan Street
West Annex Building
Albany, CA 94710-0011

(510) 559-6300

Research Topics

Insects and Disease: Pitch Canker

The pitch canker fugus, Fusarium circinatum (= F. subglutinans f sp. pini), causes several serious diseases of pines. The pathogen infects a variety of vegetative and reproductive pine structures at diierent stages of maturity and produces a diversity of symptoms. In addition to producing resinous cankers on the woody vegetative structures of its pine host, the causal fungus causes the mortality of female flowers and mature cones, deteriorates seeds of several pine species, and can cause mortality of seedlings in nurseries. Since 1986, pitch canker has been epidemic in California on Pinus radiata (Monterey pine) and has all the earmarks of an introduced disease. ¹

One of our scientists investigates Pitch Canker (Fusarium circinatum) on Douglas-fir in the Sierra Nevada using a disease resistance approach. The pathogen was recently detected in New Zealand via PCR testing on a shipment of scion. An evaluation served as the basis for an eradication project in a USDA-FS seed orchard; he is now investigating pathogen epidemiology in coastal forests of California and seeking to determine origin of the introduction and potential pathways for spread. The Institute of Forest Genetics is also collaborating with Australia, New Zealand and other countries to evaluate resistance of Monterey pine stock to Fusarium circinatum. about the scientist.

The "Beetle in a Haystack" project (joint venture with California State Parks, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and USDA Forest Service: Pine pitch canker is a source of high levels of mortality among native Monterey pine stands in coastal California. There is some evidence that it is now in Sierran Douglas-fir trees, but workers have had trouble isolating it from needles because the disease has fewer overt symptoms in Douglas-fir. The current approach to delimiting pine pitch canker in the Sierra Nevada is to walk around doing "leaf wipes" which are then cultured for the fungus. This project is intended to develop pheromones to trap beetles (which carry spores of Fusarium) as a surrogate for leaf wipes. It's much more efficient because the pheromones draw beetles from long distances, so we can save a lot of footwork by harnessing that beetle-power. Once we trap the beetles, we can culture them en masse for spores, if there is even one beetle in 400 carrying spores, we'll get a positive culture (hence the nickname "beetle in a haystack").

Research Technician with PSW Research Station, collecting beetles from trap used to monitor the vectors of invasive pine pitch canker. Each trap is baited with pheromones to attract the beetles.
about the scientist.

Research is being conducted by:

¹Dwinell, L. David. 1999. Contamination of Pinus radiata Seeds in California by Fusarium circinatum.