Stem cankers of Eucalyptus saligna in Western Australia

Summary

Ten plantations of Eucalyptus saligna in the southwest of Western Australia were surveyed for stem cankers on the lower 2 m of bole. Cankers occurred on 43% of the surveyed trees, and of these 92% were annual. The majority of the remainder, perennial cankers, were associated with galleries of Tryphocaria solida, the eucalypt longhorn beetle. Statistical analyses showed that the cankers did not appear to affect the growth rate of the trees. The fungi Cytospora eucalypticola, Endothia havanensis and Botryosphaeria ribis were isolated from both annual and perennial cankers. Pathogenicity tests showed that these fungi could cause cankers. B. ribis and E. havanensis caused larger lesions more frequently than C. eucalypticola.