Laurel wilt
plant disease
Laurel wilt, also called laurel wilt disease, is a vascular disease that is caused by the fungus Harringtonia lauricola (previously known as Raffaelea lauricola), which is transmitted by the invasive redbay ambrosia beetle, Xyleborus glabratus. The disease affects and kills members of the laurel family. The avocado is perhaps the most commercially valuable plant affected by laurel wilt.
Symptoms
Symptoms of laurel wilt include wilted stems and leaves and dark streaking in the wood. Laurel wilt can spread in at least two ways: one is via the beetle's natural reproduction and migration. A second way is through the sale and transport of beetle-infested wood, a result of redbay's use as firewood and for outdoor grilling.
Life cycle
Harringtonia lauricola lives symbiotic with the beetleXyleborus glabratus. It reproduces clonally and is vertically transmitted – originally evolving from a sexual population of mutualists. This combination of traits and ancestral traits is common, however Dreaden et al. 2019 finds H. lauricola to be one of only a few known cases in which the current, vertically transmitted clonal symbiote retains sexuality.
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This entry incorporates text from “Laurel wilt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.