Canker stain: A lethal disease destroying iconic plane trees

In this feature article current knowledge is reviewed regarding canker stain disease of plane trees, caused by the fungus Ceratocystis platani. In Europe, both Platanus orientalis and Platanus x hispanica trees are seriously threatened by this invasive fungal pathogen, which is considered to be indigenous to North America. In Italy and France, C. platani has caused widespread mortality to P. x hispanica trees; however, the most dramatic impact of the disease has been in Greece in natural stands of P. orientalis, which is a very susceptible host to this pathogen. Many iconic centuries-old trees of large dimensions had been killed by the disease. Ceratocystis platani was recently detected in Albania and all available evidence suggests that it will spread to other neighboring Balkan countries and further east to Turkey and other countries in south-western Asia where P. orientalis occurs naturally. Likewise the pathogen could also easily spread northward in central Europe on P. x hispanica placing one of the most commonly planted urban tree species in the world at risk.