Outside the boxwood

WASHINGTON, DC and COLUMBUS, Ohio – Boxwood blight (BB) continues to spread throughout the US. The University of Illinois Plant Clinic recently announced its presence in Illinois. The clinic received two boxwood samples late 2016. Both were from northeast Illinois and were collected from recent landscape installations. USDA APHIS confirmed that both tested positive for BB. Univeristy of Illinois Extension personnel are confident that the infected plants did not likely originate from an Illinois nursery. 

First identified in the US in the fall of 2011, BB has since been detected in at least 22 states across the US, in both nursery and landscape settings. Two closely related fungi, Calonectria pseudonaviculata and C. henricotiae, cause boxwood blight on three plants: boxwood (Buxus), Pachysandra, and sweet box (Sarcococca).

Since 2012, BB research has been supported through the Horticulture Title of the Farm Bill, Section 10007. In FY 2016, this funding exceeded $486,000 and supports research collaborations among IR-4, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES), Cornell University, Hood College, Oregon State University, North Carolina State University (NCSU), Virginia Tech (VT), and USDA-ARS. 
 
Click here to read the full story, on the Horticultural Research Institute's website and see what management measures research activities have been heavily focused on.