Disease detected in plants sold in Ohio stores
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PostedAugust 21, 2019
MARIETTA –A plant disease that has decimated oak forests in California, Oregon and parts of Europe has been detected in rhododendrons and lilacs sold during the spring and early summer at Walmart and Rural King in 17 states, including southeastern Ohio.
Anyone who bought the plants is being urged to destroy them by following very specific directions.
Sudden oak death disease is caused by a type of mold, Phytophthora ramorum, spread through spores. The spores typically are dispersed from the host plant by rain splatter and are aerially transferred to infect new plants.
“If it gets out and blows into the forest, it can really do some damage,” said Marcus McCartney at the Ohio State University extension office in Washington County. “This is an urgent priority. This is bad.”
McCarthy compared the damage potential of sudden oak death disease to that of the emerald ash borer, which has killed nearly all the ash trees in the region’s forests.
The infected plants were rhododendrons and lilacs sold at Walmart and Rural King outlets in southeastern Ohio between March 1 and June 1 of this year, including at the Marietta Walmart. McCartney said it is not yet clear how many of the plants sold were actually infected, or whether outlets in West Virginia were among those that received the infected plants.
The extension will come and examine any plant a homeowner is concerned about, and it can run diagnostic tests to determine the problem, he said. Anyone who bought a rhododendron or lilac from either of the […]
