![]() ![]() The slime will also kill the surrounding cambium. If the cracks extend to the cambium, they serve as avenues for slime and gas to escape. These cracks probably develop during winter months. Radial cracks may also occur in wetwood-affected trees (Figure 1). Root tissue also can exhibit wetwood symptoms as brown streaks extending from the diseased trunk into the center core and sometimes the outer wood of roots. Foliage, young shoots and grass die if slime flux drips on them. Slime can prevent or retard callus formation when the tree has been wounded or destroy the cambium at the base of a pruning cut. Wetwood slime is toxic to the tree’s cambium, the tissue between the inner bark and wood that produces new cells. Wetwood or alcohol flux slime with visiting wasps and bumble flower beetles. Wet wood induced canker on a nursery grown cottonwood. Base of tree where wetwood slime has killed the grass. Old pruning cut with wetwood slime inhibiting callus growth. Orange shinny ooze coming from a single point on aspens is usually from insect borer damage not wetwood. When the slime dries, it leaves a light gray to white crust on the bark. The ooze is foul-smelling, slimy, and colonized by yeast organisms when exposed to air. The gas pressure and high moisture content cause an oozing or bleeding of slime, from pruning cuts, through bark cracks and branch crotches. The highest gas pressure occurs in elms from May through August. In elms, the gas consists mainly of methane and nitrogen. The buildup of gas pressure is a by-product of bacterial activity. This affected wood is wetter than surrounding wood and is under high internal gas pressure. Symptoms of wetwood disorder include a yellow-brown discoloration of the wood, generally confined to the central core of the tree. The cause of alcohol flux is not known, but is assumed to be yeast because of the production of ethanol (alcohol). It has not been conclusively demonstrated that these bacteria cause the disease, but they seem directly involved. Several bacteria, including species of Enterobacter, Klebsiella and Pseudomonas, often are associated with wetwood. This disease is most commonly seen on poplars and globe willow in Colorado. ![]() ![]() The disease also affects species of apple, ash, birch, cherry, fir, honeylocust, linden, maple, oak, sycamore, plum, and poplars.Īlcohol flux is a similar disease but is characterized by a milky frothy ooze and sweet alcohol smelling infection of the bark. In Colorado, the disease is most prevalent in aspen, cottonwood, elm and willow. Effective control measures do not exist.īacterial wetwood (bacterial slime, slime flux) is a common disease that affects the central core of many shade and forest trees. Prevention of tree stress is the best management approach.Wetwood-infected tissue only slightly alters the wood strength of most trees.Several insects commonly feed on this slime.Slime is the exudate generated from fermentation pressure in wetwood affected trees and is toxic to growing areas of the tree.Bacterial wetwood is a common disease that affects the central core or bark of many shade and forest trees.Wetwood discoloration at branch crotch on American elm. Discoloration of bark of American elm affected with wetwood. ![]()
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