News Plants

Bleeding Trees: Microbial suspect named in beech deaths

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

A relative of the microbe that caused the Irish potato famine may be the killer in puzzling deaths of beech trees in the northeastern United States.

BEECH BUMMER. A funguslike invader identified on the East Coast may trigger beech dieback, bark spots that ooze, oddly pink wood (below), and eventually death of the tree. Hudler

Hudler

Plant pathologist George Hudler of Cornell University says that he’s been worrying for 30 years about occasional U.S.