Etiological studies on needle fungi associated with semimature-tissue needle blight of eastern white pine

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Abstract
The results of etiological studies on semimature-tissue needle blight (SNB) of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) deny any role to needle fungi as the primary cause. No mycelium was found in newly blighted semimature tissue by either cultural or histological methods. Mycelia of several saprophytic fungi were isolated from the blighted portions of current year needles about 2 weeks after the onset of SNB, and fruit-bodies of different organisms were found to occur both in the interior and on the exterior of blighted needles about 4 weeks after the first occurrence of disease symptoms. The fruit-bodies of two Ascomycetes, Cenangium acuum Peck & Cooke and Hypoderma desmazierii Duby (= Lophodermium brachysporum (Rostrup) Tub.), were found on the necrotic terminals of attached 1-year-old needles which had been blighted in the previous year. The morphological development of apothecia of C. acuum was studied. Hysterothecia of Lophodermium spp. (L. pinastri (Schrad. ex Fr.) Chev. and L. nitens Darker) occurred ubiquitously on fallen white pine needles. Aerial spore trapping snowed that ascospores of C. acuum were abundant, those of Lophodermium spp. were prevalent, and those of H. desmazierii were practically non-existent in the area investigated. There was little coincidence between the occurrence of SNB outbreaks and peak populations of air-borne ascospores of these fungi. Ascospore suspensions and needles bearing fructifications of C. acuum and Lophodermium spp. were used to inoculate the newly developing needles of SNB-susceptible and non-susceptible field trees and potted seedlings, but the typical symptoms of SNB did not develop as a result of these inoculations. Two fungicides, captan and Bordeaux mixture, were applied to SNB-susceptible and non-susceptible field trees throughout the growing season, but neither fungicide prevented the symptoms of SNB from appearing on the new needles of susceptible trees at the same time as they appeared on untreated susceptible trees in the area. The fungicidal sprays, however, did prevent saprophytic fungi from invading blighted portions of the needles. It is concluded from this investigation that SNB is not a disease of fungal origin.

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