Ceratocystis Fimbriata: A risk for the GMelina Arborea Roxb. (Melina) forests in Ecuador

In Ecuador, GMelina arbórea (Melina) faces the disease “vascular wilt and stem rot”, with no known etiology so far. The aim was to describe the symptomatology and to know the cause of the disease. Three plantations (2.0, 3.5, and 5.0 years old) were studied in the Ecuadorian Humid Tropics, where three plots of 500 m2 were delimited, and the incidence and severity of the disease were evaluated using an arbitrary scale of five categories (1=healthy tree, and 5=dead tree). Three trees were dissected per plot and their tissues were analyzed in the laboratory where the fungi were isolated, morphologically identified, and inoculated (pathogenicity tests) on healthy Melina plants. The detection of initial disease symptoms at the field level was complex since trees have a high resilience capacity. In trees with easily visible symptoms, chlorosis, loss of turgor, dead growth buds, epicormic bud emission, and stem rot, the release of exudates from wounds and wilting was observed. Disease incidence was 24.1%, 7.1%, and 21.3% for 2.0-, 3.5-, and 5.0-year-old plantations, respectively. Disease severity detected in the Melina plantations ranged from 2 to 5 on a scale.&nbsp