"Reference News" on July 26 "Frontiers of Science and Technology" column reprinted the "Japan Economic Weekly" July 24 article: "Blight rampant bananas are endangered" (author: the newspaper's science editor Hiroshi Kato). "Some banana-rich countries and regions are worried about the epidemic of banana infectious diseases, the pathogens that cause banana wilting are raging around the world, and in the near future, bananas may become extinct and never be eaten again." Similar pessimism is no longer even considered unfounded."
This theory has a strong basis, and it is by no means "empty".
Since the 1950s, a germ has brought misfortune to bananas. The pathogen that causes bananas to get sick is a mold called Fusarium that lurks in the soil. Fusarium enters from the root system, destroying the "blood vessels" of the banana, leaving the banana dead due to the inability to inhale water and nutrients. Soils where this mold is present may still be at risk of infecting crops decades later.
The horrific scene of this pathogen causing plants to get sick was known to the world as early as the 1950s – first spreading outward around Panama (then named "Panama Disease"); By the 1990s, a new variant of the more terrifying Fusarium species, TR4, had invaded Malaysia and spread rapidly to Africa; Invaded Colombia in South America in 2019; The disease occurs in Peru in 2021.
In early 2022, plant geneticists from Vietnam and Belgium jointly said: "In the next 25 years, up to 71% of Vietnam's land will no longer be able to grow bananas due to infection with this pathogen." ”
Panic is not alarmist, as the bacterium has spread to more than 20 countries and there are no effective prevention and treatments. Although "isolation" is generally considered an important means of prevention, "it still fails to successfully block the spread and spread of the disease", and the industry unanimously believes that "the blight caused by fusarium in the soil-borne habit is in danger of causing crop extinction once the infection spreads".
A stone strikes a thousand waves.
Plant blight does not stop at bananas, and the soil-bound Fusarium (the correct scientific name should be "Fusarium" - the author) is not limited to banana fields and banana orchards, and the blight of other agricultural, forest, fruit, flower, and grass plants is almost devastating.
The soil of urban garden green space has been stirred beyond recognition, so that a variety of pests have obtained a piece of "blessed" land for survival, and this blight caused by Fusarium bacteria in the soil has become a deadly killer of plants, and this situation is presented in garden plants, compared to plants in other regions.
For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, almost all the streets, alleys, courtyards, parks, street green spaces, sidewalks, and boulevards in the central urban area were planted with acacia trees (Albizia julibrissin Durazz), which is also called "acacia" because of its interspersed pinnate compound leaves day and night.
Park Acacia Woods
This tree has an open canopy, dense shade, yellow-green calyxes, pale pink corolla, head-shaped inflorescence, slender stems, arranged in umbrella houses, filaments that are far longer than the corolla, velvet-like, red as xia, and summer velvet flowers are full of trees, full of color and fragrance. What is particularly rare is that its flowering period is from June to July, when the local spring flowers are gone and the summer and autumn flowers are not yet available. At this time, woody trees are more scarce, and only the acacia dominates and occupies the scenery, and the locals send the ya number: "hibiscus" tree. Many streets and alleys, courtyards (gardens), and hotel halls in Quancheng are proudly named after "Hibiscus" and "Acacia", and folk weddings are mostly blessed with "Acacia" and "Hibiscus".
A beautiful hibiscus (acacia) flowers
But such a green tree, from the late 60s to the early 1980s, only more than 10 years, the Quancheng acacia tree, from a large tree with a chest diameter of more than 50 centimeters to a small tree of more than 10 centimeters, from a perennial old tree to a newly planted young tree, first the canopy and then the trunk, the roots, have withered and died.
Hibiscus (Acacia) flower - velvet blooms
Some places are not willing to lose the acacia, and when they die, they plant and die, and even die repeatedly. The acacia tree, which was loved by people but repeatedly defeated before blight, was finally forced to "lie flat" in the urban garden green space. Even in the entire field of landscaping, from nursery nursery, planning and design, plant configuration, greening engineering, maintenance management, etc., Acacia has been pulled into the blacklist of "not suitable for planting".
Courtyard acacia tree
For more than 50 years, this woody flower tree, which was highly recognized and appreciated in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, not only has its local advantages ceased to exist, but also the eager desire of other neighboring regions to introduce seeds has also been extinguished, and the domestic industry has almost reached the point of "talking about hehe (huan) discoloration".
Caught in such a difficult situation is the biological characteristics, ecological habits and fungal classification of the pathogenic bacteria of banana wilt homogeneity and homogeneity of "Fusarium" in the same family. It is the main culprit for the destruction of many plants by blight (including root rot and stem rot of some plants).
Acacia tree blight diseased plant trunk
Among the garden plants, in addition to the acacia tree, others such as bauhinia trees, purple weeds, rhododendrons, peonies, forsythia, moon season... A variety of trees and shrubs are also affected by blight, root rot and base rot.
Acacia blight tree trunk canker spots
Just as Fusarium, which threatens bananas with "destruction", evolved from "Panama" to "TR4", the garden plant Fusarium blight is constantly evolving into various "specialized types". For example, the pathogen of Tang calamus blight is "specialization type of sickle spp.comus", the pathogen of chrysanthemum blight is "specialization type of oxyfurans chrysanthemum", the source of caryophyllus blight is "specialization type of caryophyllus caryophyllum", the pathogen of tulip blight is "specialization of fusarium tulip", the pathogen of cyclamen blight is "specialization of sicklespora", the pathogen of cyclamen blight is "specialization of oxyfuria cyclamen", and the source of lily blight is "specialization of fusarium lily"... Even the most typical acacia tree blight is caused by the "Fusarium d'Oriosporum f.perniciosam (Hept) Toole."]
Dry longitudinal section of acacia blight
For Fusarium, an earth-borne fungus that causes plant blight so dangerously, its true face can be discerned from two aspects:
1. This fungus is full of vitality and extremely stubborn. Entrenched in the soil for many years, waiting for a comeback at any time, waiting for many years, not stopping, not decreasing, not dissipating, not dispersing, not extinguishing, affirming "comeback" and must "start over".
Acacia blight affects rough trunks, swollen skin holes, and secretes a dark brown liquid
2. This fungus is greedy and extremely vicious. There are many fusarium host plants, where the root system of the plant is slightly injured, weak, decayed, and disabled, whether it is cortex or wood, there is a gap that enters. Enter from the root system, follow the xylem catheter, cross the phloem sieve tube, conduct the whole body of the plant without gaps (so it is also professionally called the "vascular disease" of the plant), block the water transport in the plant, cut off the nutrient supply, cause the internal rot (rot) and external ulceration (herring), the crown branches wither, the roots dry and decay, the epidermis is longitudinally cracked, the sap is smelly and deteriorated, it is gray-white foamy overflow, the plant is rapidly withered, and the dead plant material is unusable.
Acacia blight spills out of the dry internal sickness fluid
Plant blight caused by Fusarium is attracting attention because "bananas are threatened with extinction". However, in the field of landscaping, although there are also plants that die due to the same source of disease, the degree of attention is far from enough. Some relevant scientific research and production departments have also carried out trial (practical) tests in prevention and control technology, drug treatment and other aspects, and have exerted efforts in many ways, but have achieved little effect.
Although relevant textbooks and professional reference books have been repeatedly described, they have not been able to attack its key points in the end, hurt its "bones and bones", and remove its habitat. Many places can only reluctantly give up this tree species in the end. "No, you don't have to!" Treating it negatively, or waiting and watching year after year, but this is not the proper meaning of biodiversity conservation, and it is not a positive action of landscaping.
Therefore, the author secretly thinks: In today's all walks of life to grasp high-quality development, have taken stock of the industry, the difficulties of the profession, blockages, pain points, list of talents, overcome difficulties, urban landscaping field can also be acacia tree blight as a typical representative of "difficult, blocking, pain" and "three-point problem"? Let the beautiful acacia trees in the countryside get out of danger and regain a new life, so that the long-delayed blight can be cured. If so, it is a great thing to protect biodiversity, to add luster to landscaping, and to the entire plant protection industry and profession!
(Written by Jiang Sandeng, picture source: Jiang Sandeng photo network)
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