Two Common Lumber-Staining Fungi in the Western United States

Abstract

Two species of the Ophiostomataceae group of wood-staining fungi are reported on sapwood of coniferous lumber in the western United States. A species very similar to Endoconidiophora coerulescens but apparently confined to Douglas-fir is described as a form of the European species. It covers the sapwood of Douglasfir with a black surface growth of mycelium, and stains the wood likht to dark gray. Ophiostoma piceae, another well-known European species, is also common on Douglas-fir lumber and numerous other coniferous woods in the West. It does not cause a pronounced stain but its Graphium fruiting stage is conspicuous on the wood.