Symptoms and Fungal Associations of Declining Chamaecyparis nootkatensis in Southeast Alaska

Abstract

Dying fine roots and necrotic lesions on roots and boles were common on Alaska yellow-cedars with declining crowns. Of 1,864 isolations, 1,047 from both healthy and dying cedars yielded fungi. However, when cedar seedlings were inoculated with the 11 most commonly isolated fungi, only Cylindrocarpon didymum caused necrotic lesions, and no fungi killed seedlings. Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae and Mycelium radicis atrovirens were common in cortical cells of 42 fine root samples