Honeylocust Canker in Kansas Caused by Thyronectria austro-americana. F. Crowe, Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506. D. Starkey, Area Extension Forester, and V. Lengkeek, Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506. Plant Dis. 66:155-158. Accepted for publication 14 October 1981. Copyright 1982 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-66-155.

A survey of honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos) revealed that Thyronectria austro-americana commonly and abundantly fruited on dead honeylocust wood, including wood within active cankers. Perithecia were more common than pycnidia. Two disease patterns were observed: Trunk cankers and tree death associated with pruning wounds, sunburn damage, and insect borers in newly established windbreaks and open landscape sites; and cankers on shaded-out branches in well-established windbreaks and native tree stands. Branch cankers rarely killed trees, because the pathogen appeared not to spread from a cankered branch to the main trunk. Pathogenicity was confirmed by inoculating stems of seedlings with budded spores, conidia, and pycnidiospores of cultured isolates.

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