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Home → Publications → Forest Insect & Disease Management → The Distribution of Butternut Decline in the Eastern United States

The Distribution of Butternut Decline in the Eastern United States

Anderson, Robert L.; LaMadeleine, Leon A. 1978. The distribution of butternut decline in the eastern United States. For. Insect and Dis. Manage. Surv. Rep. S-3-78. Broomall, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry. 5 p..

A canker-dieback has been recognized historically as the primary disease affecting butternut, Juglans cinerea (Hepting, 1971). This disease was attributed to the action of a fungus, Melanconium oblongum Berk (Graves, 1923). The perfect state of this fungus is Melanconis juglandis (E. & E.) Graves . Melanconium oblongum is associated with branch and twig mortality resulting in tree deformation, but not tree mortality. The fungus is considered only weakly pathogenic, successfully infecting primarily trees under stress. Widespread mortality of butternut was noted in southwest Wisconsin in 1967 (Renlund, 1971). A new fungus, tentatively identified as a species of Sirococcus, has been consistently isolated from cankers causing this mortality.l Pathogenicity tests with this fungus, conducted by Thomas H. Nicholls, U. S. Forest Service, and James E. Kuntz, University of Hisconsin, show that this fungus is a primary pathogen and can infect through nonwounded stem tissues (Nicholls, 1977).


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Author(s): Robert L. Anderson, Leon A. LaMadeleine