Deliverable 6: List of ongoing experiments - Ctba

Annexe 17: Susceptibility of harvested softwoods to infection by sapstaining
fungi
ABSTRACT CONCERNING : Ongoing research project
TYPE OF DOCUMENT : Scientific publication
THEME : Conservation 1.2 and Conservation 3.4.1
ORIGINAL TITLE : Susceptibility of harvested softwoods to infection by sap-staining fungi.
AUTHORS : E. J. Young, R. A. Eaton and J. F. Webber
PUBLICATION DATE: 2002
ORGANISATION : International Research Group on Wood Preservation Doc. IRG/WP 02-10435 (IRG
Secretariat, SE-100 44 Stockholm)
COUNTRY: England
ABSTRACT CONTENT:
In the UK a field study programme was carried out to compare the susceptibility of softwood timber from five
different commercially important tree species to infection by sap-stain fungi. Logs cut from freshly felled Scots
pine (Pinus sylvestris), Lodgepole pine (P. contorta var. latifolia), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), Norway spruce
(P. abies) and Japanese larch (Larix leptolepis) were exposed for 4 months (April to August 2001). Samples were
taken 5cm and 50cm from the end of the logs after four weeks, eight weeks and 16 weeks. The percentage
surface area of sap-stain was then measured in all samples, and isolations taken from the stained wood to identify
the fungi causing discoloration. Sap-stain was markedly greater in the two pine species compared with the three
other species. We concluded that the susceptibility of the tested tree species was as follows: Lodgepole pine =
Scots pine > Norway spruce > Japanese larch > Sitka spruce. In the 5cm samples assessed after four months this
equated to a mean stain area of 59%, 61%, 10%, 4% and