Incidence of Phytophthora species in beech stands in Serbia

Przemysław Szmit

According to many surveys of pathogenic organisms in forest soils, the presence of the Phytophthora genus is very common in both dominant and mixed stands of European beech. In Serbia, Phytophthora species were isolated from rhizosphere soil in declining, as well as apparently healthy stands. After detailed morphological and molecular identification, several Phytophthora species were confirmed. The most common pathogen of fine roots in Serbian European beech stands was Phytophthora plurivora Jung and Burgess. This species was characterized as homothallic, semipapillate, produces sporangia of various shapes, and has an optimum temperature for growth at around 25ºC. P. plurivora occurred on 58% of positive samples, followed by P. cambivora (Petri) Buisman at 17%, P. gonapodyides (Petersen) Buisman at 8%, with other unidentified species accounting for the remaining 17%. A pathogenicity test performed with P. plurivora and young beech germinants from ten Polish beech provenances demonstrated the ability of this pathogen to colonize and cause deterioration of plant tissue.