DYING OF YOUNG PINES IN CIRCLES ABOUT ANTHILLS 

 By Ferdinand W. Haasis, M. F. 



In 1914 Graves^ noted a peculiar dying of white pine in pure stand. 

 He considered it to be due to a specific fungus or group of fungi. He 

 observed it in plantations of Pinus strobus near New Haven, Conn., 

 and in other localities in the State, and reports it to have been seen by- 

 Professor J. W. Tourney in wild white pine i to 10 feet high in areas 

 one or more rods in diameter near Conway Lake, N. H., and by others 

 in New York. 



W. O. Filley, State Forester of Connecticut, noted in 191 5 that an 

 anthill almost always occurred in the center of roughly circular blanks 

 in his white-pine plantations on the Portland State Forest. 



Graves^ studied a white-pine plantation near New Haven, the trees 

 being spaced 6 by 6 feet and having a height of 5 to 7 feet. This work 

 extended over a period of three years, and he noted the successive 

 dying of the trees in a circle of dead trees. This circle was 30 feet in 

 diameter and increasing in size by the dying. A photograph accom- 

 panying the article plainly shows an anthill in the center. He mentions 

 a yellowing of the leaves as a preliminary stage and describes the in- 

 fection as "black pustules of some fungus" on the sunken bark of the 

 tree affected at the base of the tree, "extending sometimes 3 or 4 inches 

 from the ground." ^ Nine fungi, mainly species of Fusicoccum, were 

 isolated from the bark of infested trees. Four spring inoculations of 

 bits of bark were unsuccessful; but pure culture inoculations were in 

 progress in 1914. 



G. P. Clinton, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Botanist, 

 ascribes^ apparently the same trouble to a species of Phoma. The dis- 

 ease resembles the Einschniirungskrankheit of Abies, due to Phoma 

 abietina Hartig (= Fimcoccum abietinum (Hrtg.), Prill, and Delacr.), 

 but the spores are somewhat different in shape.* 



In a recent article Hawley and Record^ discuss this dying, ascribing 



^ Graves, A. H. : "Preliminary note on a new bark disease of the white pine." 

 Mycologia, VI, pp. 84-7 (1914)- 

 ' Cp. figs. I, S- 

 ' Graves, A. H. : Loc. cit. 

 * Graves gives the following bibliography : 

 Hartig, R. : "Lehrbuch der Baumkrankheiten," ed. 2, p. 124, 1889. 

 Prillieux, E., and Delacroix, G. : "Travaux du Laboratoire de Pathologic 

 Vegetale." Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. 6: 176, 1890. 



'Hawley, R. C, and Record, S. J.: "Do ants kill trees about their colonies?" 

 Am. For., v. 22, pp. 685-6 (Nov., 1916). 



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