Rapid Ohia Death plant pathogens to receive Hawaiian names
(WorldNews Environment)

Dying Ohia Trees from Rapid Ohia Death (ROD). Photo courtesy of DLNR. (HILO) – Researchers in Hawai`i, working with national and international specialists, have published a paper providing new insight into the origin and development of the tree disease called Rapid `Ohi`a Death (ROD). Scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of Hawai`i worked with colleagues at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and Iowa State to describe two new species of plant pathogenic fungi known to cause ROD. Initially noticed by landowners in Puna in 2010, ROD spread quickly across tens of thousands of acres...