Project Update: May 2008

During May 6-9, we visited Umtamvuna Nature Reserve. We collected ca. 55 diseased samples from 41 tree species, 29 genera and 19 families.

The majority of samples were those showing leaf-disease symptoms such as leaf spots. A few were of dieback or twig canker. Among the trees visited was Lydenburgia abbotii which is ca. 1000 years old.

The tree looked vigorous and had only minor leaf spots. We found the dieback of a new Syzygium species and of an endangered species, Raspalia trigyna. Raspalia seems to have been quite common in the Pondoland Centre around 1900. Then quickly and mysteriously, numbers have declined and by the mid-1960s one living plant was known. This sudden decline could have been by disease outbreak which no one had paid any attention at that time. The isolation of causative fungi from the diseased parts is currently underway.