Ash Diebck

 Earthstar Fungus

We all love a good mystery. 

Liam the barber in Buncrana set a few gardeners a quest to find out what was growing under his beech tree. The item in question is a dark brown, tulip bulb shaped object, which set us looking in the wrong direction trying to find out of it came from the tree or what type of bulb it could be. Cutting into the object revealed a soft centre with no sign of the usual fleshy scales you would find in a bulb (think onions) Eliminating bulbs from the inquiry made identifying the object a bit easier. Take into consideration the time of year and location we soon realised it isn’t a bulb, it’s a fungi. Geastrum or ‘Earthstar Fungus’. It’s a lovely thing to find but apart from the satisfaction of identification there’s no payoff as it’s classed as inedible. Although it is eaten by the tribal peoples of Madhya Pradesh in India.

Identifying things in the countryside is fun and can also be extremely important. We can spot signs of trouble before it spreads but unfortunately sometimes it can be a bit too late in the case of an ash tree disease that’s hit all of Europe.

Ash Die Back

Ash die-back came to Ireland about seven years ago as a result of planting infected trees that were imported.  Leitrim had the first reports of this disease and the Department of Agriculture tried to stop the spread through eradication and confinement programmes, which didn’t work.

What is ash dieback?

Ash dieback, also known as Chalara dieback of ash, is a serious disease that is killing ash across Europe. Ash is a very important tree both ecologically and culturally so this disease is causing great concern about the damage it will do.

Ash dieback is caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. This disease was first spotted in central Europe in 1992 and has since swept westwards. It was first identified in nursery stock then in the wider environment in 2013 although it could have been in the country much longer.

Symptoms

• Dark lesions – often long, thin and diamond-shaped – appear on the trunk at the base of dead side shoots
• The tips of shoots become black and shrivelled
• Blackened, dead leaves – may look a bit like frost damage
• The veins and stalks of leaves, normally pale in colour, turn brown
• Saplings have dead tops and side shoots
• In mature trees, dieback of twigs and branches in the crown, often with bushy growth further down the branches where new shoots have been produced
• In late summer and early autumn (July to October), small white fruiting bodies can be found on blackened leaf stalks.

Causes

The disease is spread by spores from the fruiting bodies of the fungus produced on fallen ash leaves. These airborne spores can disperse naturally via wind over tens of kilometres

Prior to the ban in October 2012 on the movement of ash trees, spread over longer distances was likely to have been via the movement of infected ash plants.

Klaus Laitenberger from Milkwood Farm in Leitrim feels that not many people seem to be aware of this devastation. When he shows infected trees to farmers on their land they are often unaware and shocked.

Klaus also thinks it’s too late to save the trees and says in his Newsletter. “What it means is that nearly all ash trees will disappear in Ireland, just like the elms did a few decades ago.  The ash is our most common native tree and I couldn’t even guess how many millions of ash trees there are in Ireland.  The thought that probably 95% of them will be gone is beyond my imagination, but unfortunately this is the reality.”

He continues “The environmental, economic and also cultural effects of wiping out this species are monumental.  We point our fingers to the forest fires in Brazil and Bolivia – burning down the lungs of the Earth, but yet quietly ignore the death of our own carbon sinks – our millions of ash trees that will leave us within a couple of decades.”

We urgently need to plant more broad leaf trees in our landscape.  Farmers should be made aware of the problem and incentivised to plant alternative trees.

Teagasc are doing some research on the issue by developing ash tree genetic resources with resistance to ash dieback. If you think your trees are infected check out www.teagasc.ie  If you have a farm, you can also get information for tree planting  and other farm related projects via the Inishowen Upland Farmers Project.

The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) has just released a fee tree planting PDF. You can read or download it here: https://treegrowing.tcv.org.uk/grow