Purpose

To encourage students to:

look closely at the forested environment and note that any given stand of trees will have a multitude of tree disease organisms

utilize resources to identify forest pathogens

become familiar with the common tree diseases that are found in BC.

Assignment

Each student must make a collection of at least 15 different forest disease specimens. Damage from insects or fire are not allowed. At least 10 must be infectious (therefore up to 5 may be non-infectious, e.g. mechanical injuries, weather damage, animal damage). The collection must have at least one sample from each of the following categories:

root disease

wood decay (conks)

dwarf mistletoe

stem disease (cankers, galls, rusts)

foliar disease - ascomycetes

foliar disease - rust

In addition, at least 3 infectious samples must be from broadleaf trees

Care of Specimens

Be sure to dry specimens as soon as possible to prevent moulding and reduce incidence of insect infestation. Air-drying in a warm, dry spot is best. Once dried, store specimens in a sturdy cardboard box. Do NOT store in plastic bags or containers, as they will likely turn to mush.

Presentation

The following data is required for each specimen:

Scientific & common name (be sure to use the most current scientific name)

Source used for ID (e.g. book & page number)

Host Tree

Species

Condition (live & thrifty, stressed, dead standing, etc.)

Geographic location (e.g. Mt. Benson, ~200 m. elev.)

Date collected

Name of collector

Note that identification can be done in the fall, but be sure record the above-mentioned data at time of collection.

It may be easiest to label each of your specimens with a number (e.g. 1 – 15) and then have a set of index cards, with corresponding number and data.