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| OFRI pathology research forester Sylvia Greifenhagen prepares to graft a scion from a butternut tree that looked to be disease-free in the wild onto black walnut rootstock. |
Invasive alien diseases pose a serious threat to Ontario's trees. For example, the butternut tree is now endangered in Ontario largely due to butternut canker, a deadly disease caused by an invasive fungus.
One way MNR is trying to save the butternut is by finding trees that appear disease-free in the wild, taking cuttings called scions from the tips of their branches, and producing genetic copies of these apparently resistant trees by grafting the scions onto black walnut tree roots and growing them in a greenhouse. (Black walnut roots are used because researchers can be sure they are disease free and because they have a higher rate of success in accepting grafts than butternut roots do.) Later these trees will be planted in orchards, to archive what they hope are disease-resistant "genotypes" and to produce seed for future, hopefully disease-resistant trees.
For more information about this research, contact information.ofri@ontario.ca.
To learn about grafting butternut, see OFRI's Grafting Butternut: A Pictorial Guide, written by Sylvia Greifenhagen.
