News

Pachysandra is boxwood blight host
Plant pathologists at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) recently identified Pachysandra terminalis (pachysandra, Japanese spurge) as a new host of Cylindrocladium pseudonaviculatum, the fungus that causes boxwood blight.

Healthy pachysandra plants were inoculated with spores of C. pseudonaviculatum and lesions developed on the leaves ten days after inoculation.

Three weeks after inoculation, many of the leaves with lesions yellowed and dropped. Heavy sporulation of the fungus was observed.

Pathologists at CAES are testing other plants for potential boxwood blight hosts.

For more: www.ct.gov/caes.

News Notes

MOBOT offers recycling program
The Missouri Botanical Garden’s plastic pot recycling will be offered starting April 2 and will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through October 31 at the garden’s Monsanto Center. An additional 13 retail garden centers across the St. Louis region will be participating in the recycling project in 2012. With the addition of 140,000 pounds of horticultural waste in 2011, the garden’s plastic pot recycling program has saved more than 1 million pounds of plastic garden pots, cell packs and plant trays from landfills to date.

Horticultural plastic accepted includes cell packs, trays, pots of all sizes and hanging baskets. The garden requires participants to shake soil and rocks out of containers and remove all metal hangers, rings or other foreign materials. Plastic bags or clay pots will not be accepted. Separate #6 plastic cell packs and trays from #2 and #5 plastic pots into the recycling trailers. Garden edging, plastic sheeting materials and food plastic will not be accepted.

For more: www.plasticpotrecycling.org.

USDA issues compensation for plum pox virus
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued an interim rule which amends the plum pox regulations to all for the payment of compensation to eligible owners of non-fruit-bearing ornamental tree nurseries. The interim rule also increases the amount of compensation that may be paid to eligible owners of commercial stone fruit orchards and fruit tree nurseries whose trees are required to be destroyed in order to prevent the spread of plum pox.

Plum pox is an extremely serious viral disease of plants that can affect many Prunus (stone fruit) species, including plum, peach, apricot, almond, nectarine, and sweet and tart cherry. A number of wild and ornamental Prunus species may also be susceptible to this disease. Without effective treatments, the only option for preventing the spread of the disease is the destruction of infected and exposed trees.

For more: www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/plum_pox.

New hosts added to Phytophthora ramorum list
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) added eight plants to the list of P. ramorum associated hosts.

The plants are: Ilex cornuta (Buford holly, Chinese holly, horned holly); Illicium parviflorum (yellow anise); Larix kaempferi (Japanese larch); Magnolia denudata (lily tree); Mahonia nervosa (creeping Oregon grape); Molinadendron sinaloense; Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine, confederate jasmine); and Veronica spicata Syn. Pseudolysimachion spicatum (spiked speedwell).

As of March 1, 2012 any nurseries within the regulated and quarantined areas containing these newly listed plants must be properly inspected, sampled and tested in order to be able to move any plants interstate.

In addition, APHIS is moving Cinnamomum camphora from the associated host list to the proven and restricted host list based on new information received from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

These changes bring the official U.S. P. ramorum host list to 137 plants.

For more: www.suddenoakdeath.org.