The pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica is a member of the Ascomycota. This necrotrophic fungus is native to East Asia and South East Asia and was introduced into Europe and North America in the early 1900s. Strains of the fungus spread more or less rapidly and caused significant tree loss in both regions. Strains of the fungus can be more or less virulent.
Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae, which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead or stressed trees into which they introduce fungal gardens, their sole source of nutrition. After landing on a suitable tree, an ambrosia beetle excavates a tunnel in which it releases its fungal symbiont. The fungus penetrates the plant's xylem tissue, extracts nutrients from it, and concentrates the nutrients on and near the surface of the beetle gallery. Ambrosia fungi are typically poor wood degraders, and instead utilize less demanding nutrients. Symbiotic fungi produce and detoxify ethanol, which is an attractant for ambrosia beetles and likely prevents growth of antagonistic pathogens and selects for other beneficial symbionts. The majority of ambrosia beetles colonize xylem of recently dead trees, but some colonize stressed trees that are still alive, and a few species attack healthy trees. Species differ in their preference for different parts of trees, different stages of deterioration, and in the shape of their tunnels ("galleries"). However, the majority of ambrosia beetles are not specialized to any taxonomic group of hosts, unlike most phytophagous organisms including the closely related bark beetles. One species of ambrosia beetle, Austroplatypus incompertus exhibits eusociality, one of the few organisms outside of Hymenoptera and Isoptera to do so.
Elaeocarpus is a genus of nearly five hundred species of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae native to the Western Indian Ocean, Tropical and Subtropical Asia, and the Pacific. Plants in the genus Elaeocarpus are trees or shrubs with simple leaves, flowers with four or five petals usually, and usually blue fruit.
Cryphonectria is a fungal genus in the order Diaporthales. The most well-known and well-studied species in the genus is Cryphonectria parasitica, the species which causes chestnut blight. The genus was, for a time, considered synonymous with Endothia, but the two are now recognised as distinct. Taxonomic studies in 2006 limited the genus to four species, but a fifth, Cryphonectria naterciae, was described in 2011 from Portugal.
Mycoviruses, also known as mycophages, are viruses that infect fungi. The majority of mycoviruses have double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) genomes and isometric particles, but approximately 30% have positive-sense, single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) genomes.
Endothia gyrosa, the orange hobnail canker, is a species of sac fungus in the family Cryphonectriaceae. It is the type species of the genus Endothia. While previously classified in the genus Melogramma, phylogenetic analyses have confirmed the independent status of this species. It is found on a variety of host genera in North America including Quercus, Fagus, Liquidambar, Acer, Ilex, Vitis and Prunus.
The gray slender loris is a species of primate in the family Loridae. It is native to India and Sri Lanka and inhabits subtropical and tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Elaeocarpus angustifolius is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and occurs from India to New Caledonia and northern Australia. Common synonyms are E. ganitrus and E. sphaericus. It is a large evergreen tree, often with buttress roots, and has leaves with wavy serrations, creamy white flowers and more or less spherical bright blue drupe fruit. In English, the tree is known as utrasum bean tree in India. In Sri Lanka recorded names are woodenbegar and Indian bead tree. It is simply known as elaeocarpus in the Northern Territory of Australia. Other names used for this tree in Australia are Indian oil fruit and genitri. In Hawaii it is known as a blue marble tree.
Psoroglaena is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Verrucariaceae. The genus was circumscribed by Johann Müller Argoviensis in 1891, with Psoroglaena cubensis assigned as the type species.
Hypovirus is a genus of viruses, in the family Hypoviridae. Fungi serve as natural hosts. There are four species in this genus. Infection reduces the virulence of its parasitic host, making it a hyperparasite useful for blight control.
Celoporthe is a genus of ascomycete fungi within the family Cryphonectriaceae. It was circumscribed in 2006 to contain the type species Celoporthe dispersa, which was found in South Africa growing on trees in the Myrtales. In 2011, several species were described from China and Indonesia: C. eucalypti, C. guangdongensis, C. indonesiensis, and C. syzygii. Molecular analysis of DNA sequences revealed an additional two species from South Africa in 2013, C. fontana and C. woodiana and in 2020 three more species from Hawaii were added to the genus.
Endothia is a genus of fungi within the family Cryphonectriaceae.
Amylostereum is the single genus in the fungal family Amylostereaceae. The genus currently comprises four saprotrophic and parasitic species, which live off living or dead wood. The Amylostereaceae cause white rot in the wood by disintegrating the tissue component lignin. They produce crust-like, partially wavy fruit bodies on the surface of infested trees, which are similar to those produced by Stereum species.
Rostraureum tropicale is a species of fungus from genus Rostraureum that is found in Ecuador.
Teratosphaeriaceae is a family of fungi in the order Mycosphaerellales.
Dothiorella dulcispinae is an endophytic fungus that might be a latent plant pathogen. It was found on Acacia karroo, a common tree in southern Africa.
Professor Michael John Wingfield is a South African academic and scientist who studies plant pathology and biological control. He was the founding director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria. Wingfield has authored or co-authored over 1,000 scientific publications and is considered a leading expert in the field of forest health and invasive species. He has received numerous awards and honours throughout his career, including Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award and John Herschel Medal, the highest accolade from the Royal Society of South Africa. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences. Wingfield has had several fungi named after him.
Coniothyriaceae is a family of ascomycetous marine-based fungi within the order of Pleosporales in the subclass Pleosporomycetidae and within the class Dothideomycetes. They are pathogenic or they can be saprobic on dead branches. They are generally a anamorphic species.
Amphilogia gyrosa is a species of sac fungus in the family Cryphonectriaceae. It is the type species for the genus Amphilogia. It was described from Sri Lanka but has been found on hinau, Elaeocarpus hookerianus and Elaeocarpus glandulifer trees in New Zealand. Until a revision in 2005, the species was classified in the genus Cryphonectria. This species has been confused in the literature with Endothia gyrosa but is morphologically and phylogenetically distinct.
