Yesterday, (when I finally found a train that was running) I traveled on the Cumbrian Coast line to Lancaster. All along the way I noticed every single tree of a certain species was dead, these weren`t old established trees, but young specimens, about 3-5 years old, with boughs roughly two-fingers thick. Later I discovered that these trees were in fact all young Sycamore, all the trees around them were perfectly fine and healthy, then I noticed that some well established large specimens also had dead patches in them, where it looked like individual boughs had died.
Another type of Dutch-Elm disease? - anybody any ideas?
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They grow like weeds round here. One of the first things I had to do when we moved here was to have two 50-foot sycamores on our boundary removed.
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>> Another type of Dutch-Elm disease? - anybody any ideas?
Yeah, they run steam trains up there, - line side fires!
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The Sycamores took a big hit during the winter before last for some reason. Same round here lots of dead ones.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 15:00
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Hmm! - not likely in this case Z, some are in amongst clumps of others, no sign of fire, burnt grass etc and its only the Sycamore thats dead, plus its both sides of the track for the whole of the journey. Tis some sort of species specific ailment I think.
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A bit of Googling suggests several diseases including sooty bark and cankers. They also have low tolerance of drought - nit that that's much problem in Cumbria!!
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Insects, diseases, squirrels, you name it. tinyurl.com/cp35bst tinyurl.com/c8d6nf4
Last edited by: L'escargot on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 16:01
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Ah! reading the links and seeing the results leads me to the diagnosis of Bacterial Leaf Scorch! - although not all the patients were in the shade! - it wood seem that they have been Syca- more than other trees this year!
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I have seen something which I would certainly identify as BLS, by the words used, on a number of horse chestnut trees in the Reading area are in the last few weeks
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On my walk down the allotment this afternoon, I notice all the trees Sycamore or whatever, all seem healthy - maybe the rail-trees are being weakened by the train fumes, then the Bacteria is attacking them!
I don`t like to see trees dying off mysteriously, they are the Lungs of the Earth!
Last edited by: devonite on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 18:16
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Forgot to add - at the top of a railway embankment! Railway/fumes connection?
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I would put my money on Squirrel or possibly deer damage.
Squirrels can easily ring bark a young tree and prefer smooth barked varieties like beech or sycamore
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My take is that the Network Rail has poisoned them, since sycamore have a particularly large leaf that causes adhesion problems.
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>> My take is that the Network Rail has poisoned them, since sycamore have a particularly
>> large leaf that causes adhesion problems.
Round here they simply fell them. Long section where WCML runs by Grand Union canal has been denuded.
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round here they leave them
Its ruining photographic sightlines
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It seems the mystery virus that I spotted killing the trees may in fact have been this ere new fangled Ash Die-back disease! - after all a dead Ash tree looks similar to a dead Sycamore from a moving train. Looks to be spreading up the line corridor by the rush of Air following the trains. - Mystery solved methinks!
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train-line trees - L'escargot
