Responses regarding the orange-stained white pine query I posted last week.
Thank you to all who responded!
Most of the people who weighed in felt that this could be “red heart,” or “red ring rot,” caused by early stages of infection by Porodaedalea (Phellinus, Fomes) pini.
A few others suggest that the coloration is not necessarily caused by an infectious agent, but is rather just something peculiar to white pines, or perhaps associated with wet sites, slow growth, or suppression.
I will try to culture out of some of the colored wood, onto media selective for Hymenomycetes (thank you to Nick Brazee for media recipes).
All the responses follow.
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Hi Bob, how about something simple like red heart caused by Phellinus pini? - Kevin T. Smith, Ph.D., USDA Forest Service
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Hi Bob: Just saw your FORPATH posting on the white pine problem.
From the looks of it, I think it could be the start of red ring rot caused by Phellinus pini (Fomes pini). The early stage of discoloration varies a bit from reddish to pinkish before the wood is severely decayed (real soft). The fruiting bodies of the fungus come out below old branch stubs....you might also see some pitch flows from branch stubs ...an early symptom of the disease. The fungus attacks many conifer species but in our area older growth white pines are commonly diseased....the cross section of the stem you provided appears to be quite old and slow growing due to no thinning in the
past....also, a stress on the trees and to the advantage of P. pini.
That would be my best guess without seeing the trees and poking around a bit. Hope this helps...let me know what others think. Hope all is well. Have a good day and greet those I know. – Dale R. Bergdahl
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The color, and the pattern in the lower picture, are the same as red ring rot caused by Phellinus pini (or whatever the correct name is at the moment). I don’t see any of the white pocket rot you usually get with more advanced infection. Although this fungus is famous for infecting through branch stubs, it is happy to take advantage of wounds, as in the small cookie. - Barbara Burns, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, & Recreation.
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I have seen the orange wood in a local woodlot, and foresters refer to it as “pumpkin wood”. There is no apparent relation to infectious disease or tree health. The coloration just seems to be peculiar to white pine in certain stands and locations. - Bill Livingston
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If this is from a butt disk the most likely explanation is the tree is infected with Tomentosus root disease (TRD) caused by Inonotus tomentosus. This is a very characteristic stain pattern, associated with this root disease, which is expressed, up the stem from the roots, well in advance of any signs of fungal degradation. In the advanced stages of decay this fungus causes a very distinct type of pocket rot (see stump image). This a serious root disease most often associated with Picea spp causing stand opening disease, but also affecting other conifer spp. Pinus, Abies, Larix, Thuja, Tsuga. Where I. tomentosus infects the root system this can easily explain the dieback and decline in the stand. Most infection takes place underground through root grafting between infected and healthy roots. Roots systems of stressed trees are susceptible to infection as they cannot wall off the fungus penetration from an infected adjacent root, often resulting in disease/mortality centres and eventual stand openings. Visible signs (fruiting bodies) of the disease are evident only in the late fall, on the ground sprouting along infected roots and sometimes present at the root collar of severely infect trees (see fruiting body images). Some of these fruiting bodies may still be evident in the stand now, but will deteriorate relatively quickly once the weather warms up as this is an annual leather type fruiting body. - Gary Warren, PhD , Canadian Forest Service
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In Boyce, reads : The heartwood of sugar, western white, and eastern white pines often becomes a pink, light-red or vinousred color on dying. Have you observed the presence of the fungus Porodaedalea pini (Fomes pini) that cause Red ring rot? - Guy Bussières
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I asked a recent PhD grad who did a lot of research on EWP (Dr. Philip Marshall). Here is what he said: "Yes I have seen this a number of times, especially in trees from wetland sites. It seems to be associated with suppression/stagnation/slow growth, and the color is from an accumulation of resins in the wood (so there may be a stress response involved). " - Ann Camp
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It is hard to tell for sure using photos but what caught my eye was the beginnings of a ring pattern just inside the sapwood region and that is quite common....with ref ring rot. Anyway, good to hear about the other comments and that Kevin agrees with me...I guess.... Wasn't aware of the name change again...that makes 3 scientific names during my career. Looking forward to hearing more comments...once you get them all maybe provide a brief summary and send to FORPATH. Hope all is well. – Dale R Bergdahl
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Below is my explanation for “pumpkin pine” sent to Karen Bennett, Extension Forestry Professor and Specialist, University of New Hampshire, Durham, 9 April 2012, in response to her question about its cause.
A whole range of colors occur in columns of wound-initiated discoloration during the early pre-symptomatic stage of decay in white pine. For example, early stages of decay by Phellinus pini is often called “red heart”. The color that is caused by oxidation of phenolic extractives of heartwood and can vary with pH. Pioneer bacterial associates of decay fungi can make wood more basic if the oxygen content of wood is low because they feed on proteins and produce ammonia, and more acidic at high oxygen content because they feed on carbohydrates. Pioneer fungi associated with early wood decay can grow as budding spores and may produce pigments of their own depending on pH and trace metal content. Once the oxygen content increases near the open wound as exposed wood dries, the decay fungi begin to actively decompose wood to produce typical symptoms of decay such as the white pocket rot of P. pini and then spread through the discolored wood over time from years to decades. The size and shape of the discoloration stage proceeding symptomatic decay varies with the number and size of woods exposing wood to infection. The loss of branches leaves a stub wound that exposes the central portion of the tree to aeration and infection; the loss of bark yields a scar wound that exposes sapwood and live inner bark to dehydration, aeration and infection. Color variations depend on complex interactions of phenolic compounds produced by the tree, the degree of dehydration and aeration, the types of pioneer bacteria and fungi associated with the decay pathogen which colonizes the exposed live, dying, and dead wood. Some decay pathogens like P. pini attack and kill live outer sapwood and inner bark causing a canker that continues to expose live tissue, other pathogens can attack only sapwood, but not inner bark, and yet other non-pathogenic fungi attack only dead heartwood. The living sapwood and inner bark is protected to varying degrees by compartmentalization, the protective system in tree which varies genetically and with environmental conditions. Trees with poor compartmentalization have larger columns than those with strong compartmentalization. The light brown pine boards with unusual yellowish-golden or reddish brown hues known in the trade as “pumpkin pine” is likely found only in larger, older trees because it takes time for large columns to develop in the heart of trees likely exposed by smaller stub wounds keeping the oxygen content relatively low so decay will not spread quickly through the discolored wood. The same colors can be seen in association with lots of smaller columns in smaller, younger trees, and occur as isolated patches in boards cut from them. It is easy to imagine red heart altered to the colors of pumpkin pine by adjusting the pH and perhaps the trace metal content during the early stage of decay when pioneer bacteria and fungi are active before advanced decay begins. So there is my explanation of pumpkin pine. - Walter Shortle
Robert E. Marra, Ph.D.
Forest Pathologist
Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
123 Huntington Street, P.O. Box 1106
New Haven CT 06504-1106
http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2812&q=394858
E-mail: robert.marra@ct.gov<mailto:robert.marra@ct.gov>
Phone: (203) 974-8508
Fax: (203) 974-8502
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