Endothia gyrosa associated with severe stem cankers on plantation grown Eucalyptus nitens in Tasmania,Australia

Severe stem cankers in Eucalyptus nitens, from a 14-year-old mixed provenance plantation, were associated with infection by Endothia gyrosa, present in its teleomorph state. Surveys of incidence among canker severity classes were carried out in a thinned and pruned stand and an adjacent unthinned and unpruned stand within the affected plantation. No differences in incidence among the canker severity classes were found between the thinned/pruned and unthinned/unpruned stands or between different crown dominance classes within the unthinned/unpruned stand. However, the incidence among canker severity classes was strongly associated with bark roughness with 97% of rough-barked trees developing either annual cankers or cankers causing cambial damage. Stem cankers were found on only 11% of trees with smooth bark. Bark roughness in E. nitens was shown to differ significantly between provenances. Deployment of provenances prone to rough bark in routine plantation establishment may pose a risk of damaging stem canker outbreaks.