At the beginning of July Municipality of Tempo organized a very beautiful art event in the valley. Acropolis Museum pianist Elena Xidia played the piano in the air, on a platform suspended by a crane over the river, to create a video to promote the area’s natural heritage. However, it was enough for someone to take a closer look to discover that something was not right in the beautiful Tempe sycamore forest. “Unfortunately, too many trees are affected by the metachromatic sycamore canker and have already dried up,” explains forester Panagiotis Tsopelas, who has been involved in Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems Institute (ELGO-DIMITRA) with a specific disease.

The disease was introduced to our country 20 years ago and has already killed thousands of trees throughout Greece. “This is caused by the fungus Ceratocystis platani, an invasive species native to North America that only infects plane trees. In Europe, the fungus was introduced during World War II with sycamore wood, which was used to make boxes for transporting military equipment from the United States. In Italy and France, where the pathogenic strain was originally introduced, the disease has spread widely, killing thousands of plane trees,” explains Mr Zopelas.

The only way to fight the disease is to destroy the affected tree. “Metarcolor canker of the sycamore is a deadly and one of the most devastating diseases of forest trees worldwide. If a tree is infected with a disease, it is doomed and there is no way to cure it. Trees that are directly adjacent to the affected one are also affected, because the fungus spreads to the roots of neighboring healthy trees through anastomoses (junctions) of the roots,” notes Mr. Tsopelas.

Early diagnosis

The disease caused by the fungus Ceratocystis platani was introduced to our country 20 years ago and has already killed thousands of trees throughout Greece.

“Treatment of the disease is possible with early diagnosis and limiting the number of affected trees. Since the disease is fatal, the only way to combat it is to immediately cut down and destroy all affected trees, as well as neighboring healthy ones, which, in addition, must have their root system destroyed using chemical means. preparations (herbicides). In this way, the spread of the pathogen to neighboring trees through the roots is prevented, since the fungus cannot colonize the roots that have been destroyed by the herbicide. Thus, the disease was successfully treated with small outbreaks in several regions of the country. But when the disease takes on large dimensions, its treatment is very difficult or impossible. The disease has already destroyed the wonderful plane trees throughout Greece. “One of the largest plane tree forests in Greece on the Sperchios River in Phthiotis, where hundreds of thousands of plane trees grow, is under threat of extinction.

In the north of Evia, along the Kirea River, thousands of trees died from disease. Major damage was caused to coastal plane forests along the rivers Arachthos, Acheronta, Aou, Voidomati and Kalama in Epirus. In some sections of these rivers, coastal plane trees have been completely destroyed,” explains Mr. Tsopelas.

“At the same time, the fungus C. platani killed the iconic plane trees that adorned squares, streets and recreation areas in many parts of the country. A typical example is the destruction of trees by a disease of a large part of the lakeside urban landscape of Ioannina.

How did it spread

There are already dozens of dead trees in Tempi next to the Church of St. Paraskeva and around the newly reconstructed bridge of the old national road. It is clear that the disease spread in the Tempe Valley with the earthmoving machines working on the bridge reconstruction, as well as other works that were carried out in the surrounding area,” estimates Mr. Zopelas. “Unless immediate action is taken, including extensive tree clearing, the Tempi sycamore forest will also be lost.”