Chalara fraxinea

Publication Date

Wed, 18 Mar 2009, 00:00

Last Updated

March 17, 2009, 9:01 a.m.

Report Number

SVN-05/3

Country

Slovenia

Pest Id

Chalara fraxinea - (CHAAFR)

Report Status

Final

Hosts

Fraxinus excelsior and Fraxinus angustifolia

Pest Status (old values from ISPM 8 -1998 )

• Present: only in some areas

Pest Status (ISPM 8 - 2021)

• Present: not widely distributed and under official control

Geographical Distribution

forests in Slovenia

Summary

Ash dieback is considered the most urgent problem in Slovenian forest health. Based on the report of Slovenian Forestry Service we are concerned about severe dieback of common and narrow-leaf ash (Fraxinus excelsior and F. angustifolia) in forests in Slovenia. Damages in ash growth (more than 50 % of leading shoots could die) and fast progressing dieback in the crowns of full-grown trees have been reported, which were characterised by dieback of the branches from exterior part of the crown to its inner part. The disease has some characteristics of "wilting" diseases (tracheomycoses), but in other characteristics it differs from them (for example: dieback of shoot bark, formation of cankers, necroses on leaves and leaf stalks). From necrotised ash tissues a fungus was isolated. Kowalski provided the description of new species in 2006 and named it Chalara fraxinea. After preliminary pathogenicity tests it was concluded that this fungus is possible cause of observed epiphytotic disease, but a lot of details about the biology of the fungus are still not known.

Report files

Website

http://www.bspp.org.uk/publications/new-disease-reports/ndr.php?id=019015