ASH TREE BIODIVERSITY / Gary Lincoff, 2017
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5 Kingdoms interacting with Ash Trees
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No tree is an individual; all are communities of organisms changing over the course of a year and throughout the life and death of a given tree. Even as a tree is reduced over time to soil, a succession of organisms appear and disappear, as the tree is debarked and broken down to house and feed a multitude of organisms. Epiphytes, endophytes, parasites, decomposers, symbionts all have roles to play, as do some things flying by, crawling up, or blown by wind, looking for a meal or shelter or both: a tree is a microcosm of all the kingdoms of life. Know a single tree thoroughly and you know more about life and evolution than any world traveler can ever hope to attain.
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6 Ash trees in Central Park
Fraxinus americana (White Ash)
Susceptible to EAB, ash tree flower gall mite,
Ash tree leafcurl aphid
Fraxinus excelsior (European Ash)
Susceptible to Chalara fraxinea (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus)
Fraxinus ornus (Flowering Ash)
Susceptible to scales, root rot fungi, sooty mold, Verticillium wilt
Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. pennsylvanica (Green Ash)
Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. subinegerrima
Fraxinus profunda (Pumpkin Ash)
Susceptible to EAB, Neonectria ditissima (Nectria galligena) (coral spot) canker, Ganoderma rot, Oyster mushroom bark saprotroph, etc.
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Note: on determining the age of an urban tree:
Different websites are all over the map on just how old a given tree is – without cutting it down or coring it – but just by estimating its age by measuring its circumference and then a little division and multiplication. There seems to be some agreement that the age of a Green Ash can be approximated simply by measuring its circumference at 4 ½ feet from the base of the trunk: its age in years is about equal to its circumference in inches.
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PLANT KINGDOM
Mosses………….
? Knothole Moss (Anacomptodon splachnoides) ? and others (to be determined)
? Threadbare Moss (Anomodon tristis)
Green Algae…….
Coccomyxa spp.– single-celled Green Alga
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ANIMAL KINGDOM
EAB – Emerald Ash Borer – Agrilus planipennis
Forest Health Center research update:
“Ash endophytes may provide a new bio-control option for fighting the emerald ash borer”
US Forest Service & Forest Health Research `and Education Center – Dr. Tyler Dreaden
Ash leafcurl aphid – Prociphilus fraxinifolii
Aphid living in sclerotia of the bolete
Boletinellus merulioides
Ash flower gall mite (aka Cauliflower gall mite)
Aceria (Eriophyes) fraxinivorus
Ash bud moth (Prays fraxinella)
Some Birds that feed on Fraxinus seeds:
Ducks Cardinal
Finch Grosbeak
Finch Cedar Waxwing
Tardigrades (Water-bears) live in wet moss and lichens on ash trees (and everywhere else)
Nematodes and rotifers (in soil & wood)……
(Nematodes transmit Arabis Mosaic Virus)
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KINGDOM OF THE FUNGI
Boletinellus merulioides (Ash Tree Bolete)
A symbiont with the leafcurl aphid – exchanging housing for nutrients
This mushroom has been found in Central Park (Manhattan), Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Alley Pond Park (Queens), Van Cortlandt Park and Pelham Bay Park (the Bronx), and Wolfe’s Pond Park (Staten Island)
Morchella angustieps (Black Morel)
Found under dead and dying ash trees
Ash Tree endomycorrhizae…..(arbuscular mycorrhizae)…microscopic fungi living symbiotically within the roots of ash trees,
exchanging nutrients, like phosphorus, for carbohydrates. (Sequester carbon in soils)
Chalara fraxinea [Hymenoscyphus fraxineus] on Fr. excelsior (ash tree dieback) (other species?)
“Endophytes in Ash Shoots – Diversity and Inhibition of Hymenoscyhus faxineus,” Hanackova, et al., Baltic Forestry 2017, vol. 23 (1)
Results: 58 fungal species (20 only in the summer, 23 only in the winter, and 15 in both seasons. Species richness of saprotrophs decreased and species richness of pathogens increased in winter. Number of species was higher in the shoos of resistant trees than in susceptible trees (32 and 26 respectively).
Coral Spot on ash (Neonectria ditissima) on
Fraxinus profunda (and other ash species?)
Ash Anthracnose (Apiognomonia errabunda)
Also occur on oaks / causes leaf & twig dieback
Smooth Patch on Ash (Dendrothele macrodens)
Perenniporia fraxinophilus – large bracket higher up on ash trees…..”The major cause of trunkrot in living Fraxinus.” (N.A. Polypores)
Perenniporia fraxinea: a small white rot bracket near base of ash trees
Ash leaf rust fungus (Puccinia sparganoides)
On white and green ashes. Secondary hosts
are species of grasses – Spartina and Distichlis
Verticillium wilt: leaf wilt due to blocked xylem
Armillaria root rot fungus (Honey Mushroom)
Ganoderma root rot fungus (Reishi)
Laetiporus sulphureus: (Chicken Mushroom)
a brown rot pathogen; possibly nematocidal…
Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)
Feeding on bark, as well as nematodes…..
(Many wood rot fungi consume nematodes!)
Inonotus hispidus : a shaggy, orange bracket that causes heart-rot
Pholiota squarrosa: a clustered, scaly, gilled mushroom, a decomposer
Lichens on Ash Trees
536 lichens (plus 31 lichenicolous fungi, and 15 non-lichenized fungi) have been recorded on British Fraxinus excelsior trees
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PROTIST KINGDOM
Many protozoans living on/feeding on algae, mosses, lichens and fungi on ash trees
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KINGDOM OF BACTERIA
Pseudomonas syringae (Bacterial Knot)
on Fr. Excelsior
Ash Yellow (Candidatus phytoplasma fraxini
Causes witches’-brooms, slow growth, decline & early death: all Central Park spp. are susceptible
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VIRUSES
Arabis Mosaic Virus…transmitted by nematodes
(ArMV isolated from F. americana & F. excelsior)
