Glossary of Tree Terms

A small beetle that commonly infests stressed and dead oak trees. They excavate tunnels and release a fungus from which they feed. The process of tunneling through xylem tissue and into cambium tissue effectively girdles and kills live trees. Their frass is white in color

Aphids reside on the undersides of leaves.They use a sucking mouth part (stylet) to penetrate leaf tissue to feed on plant juices.They can spread disease through their saliva. In large quantities, they weaken trees and shrubs.

Is a vascular tissue that produces phloem and xylem cells. Phloem to the bark side, and xylem to the inside which becomes the heartwood. When enough damage caused by insects and pathogens or mechanical damage occurs, a plant may die.

Also locally known as Sycamore borer, does not bore too deeply so a tree can withstand some colonization without detrimental affects. When a tree becomes over colonized, treatment to eliminate is necessary.

 Refers to the fruiting body of a fungus.

Perennial plant which loses all its leaves at one time during the year.

Are the fine root mass that occurs just beneath the soil surface. From approximately four to twenty-four inches deep, these roots mine the soil for water and nutrients. These roots are responsible for tree health. They can become diseased, or they mechanically eliminated. This often leads to severe tree stress.

Frass is the material that is excreted by insects as they feed. In the IPM system of pest management, it is used as an identification tool to determine species of insect and severity of colonization.

Ganoderma is a fungus which can invade, colonize and kill a tree using wounds as entry points. There are several types of Ganoderma. Ganoderma applanatum, also known as artist’s conk, is a heart rot pathogen which eats away at the sapwood and heartwood or a tree. The fruiting body of this fungus appears at the base of a tree and has a brown top and a white bottom. Ganoderma lucidum causes decay of the roots and trunk and can kill a tree within 5 years. The conk is a reddish-brown.