Sudden oak death jumps quarantine

The funguslike microbe that has swiftly killed coast live oaks and other trees in northern California and Oregon has bypassed containment measures and turned up in nurseries to the south, officials announced earlier this month.

During a survey of commercial nurseries, California state pathologists found the sudden oak death pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, first on camellias at a Monrovia Nursery site east of Los Angeles and then on camellias at Specialty Plants nursery in San Diego County.