Beech leaf disease, discovered in 2012, affects most beech species, in this case the American beech, an important tree of eastern North America known for its beautiful smooth-gray bark. The striped leaves that indicate the disease are caused by nematodes, which are microscopic and parasitic worms. As of this writing (2022), there is no known control for this destructive disease, which along with beech bark disease is killing millions of these beloved trees. Taken in Connecticut.
Beech leaf disease, discovered in 2012, affects most beech species, in this case the American beech, an important tree of eastern North America known for its beautiful smooth-gray bark. The striped leaves that indicate the disease are caused by nematodes, which are microscopic and parasitic worms. As of this writing (2022), there is no known control for this destructive disease, which along with beech bark disease is killing millions of these beloved trees. Taken in Connecticut.
Airdate: Monday, April 24, 2023
For many plants and trees, the spotted lanternfly has become public enemy number one in Pennsylvania over the past few years.
But all the while, other threats have emerged. One that is getting more attention is Beech Leaf Disease, which has now been detected in 65 of the state’s 67 counties.
It’s attacking and killing beech trees that are abundant in Pennsylvania and a valuable source of food for bears, deer, squirrels and other animals that feed on the nuts.
Joining us on The Spark Monday was Emelie Swackhamer, a Penn State Extension educator, based in Montgomery County, who explained what Beech Tree Disease is,”We believe it’s caused by a nematode which is a small and segmented roundworm. Microscopic. But we also have found bacteria and fungi associated with this disease. So it’s so new. We we don’t know a lot about it yet.”
What does the disease actually do to beech trees?”The leaf disease is complex and the nematode gets into the buds. It over winters in the buds and then they reproduce and you get these high populations of nematodes building up in the leaves. The nematodes feed between the layers of the leaves and they feed on the leaf cells and they actually make the leaf cells change and they, the cells grow and divide in an abnormal way and it thickens the leaves. So it’s technically a gall or a thickening of the tissue when they get to high enough populations and they destroy enough of the photosynthetic cells within the capability, within the cells, the leaves can die. They’ll curl. A good diagnostic feature to look for is to hold infected leaves up to the light. And you can see between the veins. Some areas will be very dark green and other areas will be very light green. You get this banding look and you can see that pretty easily when you hold it up to the light.”
Swackhamer said so far there isn’t a treatment for the infected trees,”Anytime we have a new problem come into the state or any area, people look for recommendations and we need to just take a pause for a minute to think about what does that really mean? So a recommendation doesn’t have a good definition. And sometimes people turn to Internet sources or other sources that aren’t research based and you know, somebody’s idea or maybe best guess, and sometimes that’s not the best way to go. So to get research cranked up for these kinds of problems, it’s difficult. We don’t have a lot of ready resources in place and staff and in some cases, commercial tree care companies are trying things that are legal, that are used for other problems like insects or, you know, other problems that might have efficacy against this nematode. So that’s kind of where we’re at. We’d like to see more research. We’d like to know how it spreads that might help us intercept it. So we mentioned birds, but we think wind driven rain, but we really just don’t know a lot about this. So where we’re at with it right now, we usually start with protect the health of the tree that you are concerned about. Make sure that you’re not injuring it with lawnmowers or any kind of machinery. Try to mulch the root system to protect it, water it if it’s dry, try to promote the health of that tree.”
