Ramorum disease has been found in larch trees in Cumbria for the first time.
The disease, which kills larch trees very quickly and is a recent arrival in Britain, has been confirmed in two woods in the Eskdale Valley in western Cumbria.
The outbreak is the second in north-west England after one in southern Lancashire, and only the third outbreak in England outside the south-west, where the disease has resulted in the premature felling of hundreds of thousands of larch trees.
Larch trees produce large quantities of the spores that spread the disease, which can infect many species of trees and plants. The only available disease control is to fell the trees, preferably before the next spore release, which current knowledge indicates occurs in the autumn.
There have been findings of ramorum disease on other plants, such as rhododendron, near the affected woods. Investigations are continuing into other suspected sites identified by aerial surveys in northern England, and the Forestry Commission believes there is a possibility that more outbreaks will be found.
Ramorum disease is caused by Phytophthora ramorum, a fungus-like pathogen that is particularly serious in Japanese larch trees and rhododendron, both of which produce large numbers of infective spores.
