Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides

Casuarina butt rot (195)

Click/tap on images to enlarge

Photo 1. Ganoderma applanatum growing from the base (butt) of Casuarina equisetifolia. Note that the fruit body is flat, brown above, and white underneath.

Photo 2. Close-up of a fruit body of Ganoderma applanatum, showing the brown, bumpy, topside and the white underside.

Photo 3. Casuarina equisetifolia killed by Ganoderma applanatum.

Summary

  • Worldwide distribution. Temperate, sub-tropical and tropical. An important disease.
  • On Casuarina and many broadleaf and fir trees, causing rots in the heartwood of roots, butts, stems.
  • Difficult to detect: yellowing, slower growth, dieback, death. Trees become susceptible to be blowing over in the wind.
  • Fruit body grey-brown, up to 50 cm, uneven with rings, on dead or living trees, white below with pores.
  • Spread by root-to-root contact and/or spore infections.
  • Cultural control. There is no control. Once a tree is infected it will die. When brackets are first seen, it is best to remove the tree to prevent infection of those nearby. Avoid wounding trees.
  • Chemical control: none recommended.

Common Name

Casurina butt rot. Also see Fact Sheet no. 004 for butt and root rots of other trees.

Scientific Name

Ganoderma applanatum. The fungus was previously known as Fomes applanatus. The common name for the fungus is the Artist's Conk.

AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from Kuo M (2018) Ganoderma applanatum. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site. (http://www.mushroomexpert.com/ganoderma_applanatum.html). and from Ganoderma applanatum. Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganoderma_applanatum). and from CABI (2019) Ganoderma applanatum (shelf fungus). Crop Protection Compendium. (Kuo, M. (2018, October). Ganoderma applanatum. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/ganoderma_applanatum.html). Photos 1&3 Kohler F, et al. (1997) Diseases of cultivated crops in Pacific Island countries. South Pacific Commission. Pirie Printers Pty Limited, Canberra, Australia. Photo 2 Wikipedia: Ganoderma applanatum. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganoderma_applanatum).

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

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