East Bay plant people, let's document plant disease!
Hey folks. Michele Hammond at EBRPD asked me to set up this project so we can collect observations of disease in native plants in the East Bay, particularly in manzanitas and associated species, but really for any situation where you see a lot of dead leaves or dead plants across numerous individuals in a population of native plants.
Here are some important things to keep in mind:
- Try to document situations where multiple plants show evidence of dead branches or dead individuals. One afflicted individual is less significant than a pattern of disease.
- Try to get photos that both demonstrate what species you're looking at and show a pattern of multiple infected individuals. This usually means adding close-up photos and far-back photos to the same observation.
- Don't bother documenting problems in burn areas. Presumably those issues are due to fire and not disease.
Also, shout-out to East Bay iNat folks: if you see a bunch of infected plants, please add to this project! @catchang, @hfabian, @kevinhintsa, @tiwane, @damontighe, @steve-beatty, @xsweatsx, @jlmartin, @newt77, @lylegordon, @lithostrotionella, @clem, @ang, @loscheiner, @tbschwarz, @journeybug, and everyone else I'm too lazy to type out!
Comments
Thanks for passing this on.
@kueda - this project?
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/east-bay-native-plant-disease-monitoring
@morganstickrod - for those times you're hanging out with the East Bay Manzanitas
Thanks! It might be helpful to update the project rules to accept taxa other than vascular plants in order to capture known diseases-- for example, I've got an observation of Arbutus infected with Neofusicoccum arbuti, but my observation is for the fungus and not the tree.
@damontighe, yup, that's the one.
@lithostrotionella, done.
Good idea.
Thanks for all the help and excellent organization Ken-ichi! If anyone wants more information on pathogens in native plant habitats go to CalPhytos.org. One thing I want to ask you all is please make sure you are cleaning your shoes before and after you go on hikes. Perfection isn't necessary but dirt clods carry pathogens. Best practices include a quick spray with at least 70% isopropyl alcohol. This all started for EBRPD with sampling dying pallid manzanitas and Phytophthora spp. infection area mapping. We don't need to add any woody plants from Upper Loop Huckleberry trail -- this area is an example of what a bad phytophthora infection looks like.
@ddefreese please contribute if you see anything on your travels through the East Bay!
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