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Etiology

Compartmentalization of Discolored Wood in Heartwood of Red Oak. Alex L. Shigo, Chief scientist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Durham, NH 03824; Walter C. Shortle, research plant pathologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Durham, NH 03824. Phytopathology 69:710-711. Accepted for publication 16 January 1979. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1979. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-69-710.

Discolored wood associated with holes drilled into heartwood of living red oak (Quercus rubra) trees was strongly compartmentalized after 2 yr; discolored wood associated with similar holes in trees that were girdled immediately after wounding was weakly compartmentalized. The results indicate that heartwood in red oak is not a dead, nonresponsive tissue; the classic concept that heartwood-rotting fungi grow unrestricted through heartwood is not true. The concept of heartrot must be revised to include compartmentalization.