Recognition of on Wood in Poland and Assessment of Its Pathogenicity.

is so far only known in North America. However, recently in southern Poland, blackish growth consisting of fungal mycelia and sporulation structures was found on the wood of . As a result of isolation, 17 cultures of this fungus were obtained. All cultures produced an intense sweet odor. This fungus, both in situ and in vitro, abundantly produced perithecia with long necks and asexual stage. Particularly characteristic was the production of variable endoconidia in two types of phialophores differing mainly in the width of the collarette. The nucleotide sequences for five gene fragments of representative cultures were used in phylogenetic analyses: 18S; the internal transcribed spacer regions ITS1 and ITS2, including the 5.8S gene (ITS); 28S region of the ribosomal RNA (rRNA), β-tubulin 2 (TUB2) and translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1). Based on morphological and phylogenetic analyses, the fungus on European beech in Poland was identified as . The optimal temperature for radial colony growth was 20 °C. However, the differences between colony diameter at 25 °C compared to that at the optimal temperature were not statistically significant. Six isolates were used for pathogenicity assay. They were inoculated into wounds on stems of two-year-old seedlings of and (36 seedlings of each tree species). Final evaluation was performed 4 months after inoculation. No external symptoms were observed in any seedling, neither in the crown nor on the stem. However, 13.9% of seedlings showed wilting symptoms throughout the entire crown within 3-6 weeks after inoculation. Moreover, after 4 months on the stems of 30.6% beech seedlings, necrotic lesions with a length of 1.3 to 7.2 cm were formed, without any symptoms of wilting. The most noticeable internal symptom was the discoloration of the wood, which was observed in all inoculated seedlings of both tree species. All isolates caused greater wood discoloration in than in . Most of the differences found in the extent of discoloration between host plants were statistically significant. The discoloration caused by all isolates in was significantly greater than in the control. However, none of the isolates tested on caused significantly greater wood discoloration compared to the control. Pathogenicity tests showed that the isolates identified in southern Poland may pose a greater threat to native European beech than to foreign sugar maple.