Relation between Collybia fusipes root rot and growth of pedunculate oak

Collybia fusipes (Bull. ex Fr.) is the cause of a root rot on oak, mainly pedunculate oak, Quercus robur L., and northern red oak, Quercus rubra L. The disease is associated with a deterioration of the crown of affected trees in some, but not all, stands. We investigated the relationship between the level of root damage induced by C. fusipes and past growth of the infected trees at four sites of pedunculate oaks and one site of red oaks in northeastern and central France. The severely infected oaks showed poor growth for 15-50 years depending on the site. At one site where C. fusipes was not associated with a deterioration of the affected tree crowns, the basal area increments of severely root damaged oaks has nevertheless been poor for more than 30 years. Severe infection by C. fusipes was associated with a 30-50% reduction of basal area increment in the last 10 years preceding the study at all the sites. In contrast, in all the sites, trees lightly damaged by C. fusipes had basal area increments similar to the undamaged trees. The data would be consistent with a disease that develops slowly on vigorous trees and affects their growth only late in the infection process.