The capacity of red-heart Beech wood for resistance to timber fungi (Merulius lacrymans, Coniophora cerebella, and Polyporus vaporarius)
Buchwald, N.F.
Dansk Skovforen. Tidsskr, 238-251
1939
Accession: 013551263
A tabulated account is given of the writer's laboratory experiments at the Danish Agricultural College, Copenhagen, to determine the relative pathogenicity of malt extract cultures of three wood-destroying fungi, Merulius lacrymans, Coniophora cereblla, and Polyporus vaporarius, to unimpregnated and impregnated wood blocks of white beech (Fagus sylvatica), unimpregnated blocks of red-heart beech (F. sylvatica), and impregnated blocks of mixed white and red-heart beech, unimpregnated blocks of spruce (Picea abies) being included in one series for control purposes. Impregnation was carried out with tar oil in each case. M. lacrymans was found to be the most destructive of the three fungi, causing losses of 48, 27, and 43 per cent., respectively, in unimpregnated white and unimpregnated red-heart beech and spruce in 7 1/2 months, the corresponding percentages for C. puteana being 37, 29, and 31, and for P. vaporaria 22, 17, and 22, respectively. M. lacrymans made much slower progress than the other two organisms in the decomposition of the wood in the initial stages of the tests, but after five months the relative positions were reversed. Impregnated beech wood, both white and red-heart, sustained little damage from the pathogens tinder observation, the loss of weight amounting to only 5 to 6 per cent., mostly occurring during the first two months. The treated white wood seemed to be slightly more resistant than the red.