The symptoms of this disease were first described over 30 years ago on the example of the mountain pine growing in the Tatra Mountains. It was believed then that the cause of its appearance was environmental pollution.Research conducted by phytopathologists from the University of Life Sciences in Wrocław has shown that it is caused by fungi of the genus Lophodermium.
Symptoms in the form of yellow tiny spots with a diameter of 1-2 mm appear in spring. Then they cover from several to several dozen percent of the needle surface. As the disease progresses, the affected needle surface increases in size, the needle becomes straw yellow and then falls off. The date of the first mass fall of needles falls on the turn of June and July.
Then only this year's non-contaminated needles remain on the shoot, creating a kind of "brush" at the ends of the shoots. In the following weeks, the development of infestation of young needles this year can be observed, and the second date of mass needle drop, although weaker than the summer one, can be observed at the beginning of September. in the Tatras.
We also have signals that yellow spot appears on the needles of mountain pine in mountain gardens.Our team has discovered a new species of mountain pine blotch fungus that is found only in the Karkonosze Mountains, which is why it was named Lophodermium corconticum.
