What causes blue stain fungi?

Biology: Blue stain fungi are carried by bark beetles and other wood inhabiting insects and are associated with tree mortality. They are mostly blue-staining and primarily from the genera Ophiostoma and Ceratocystis. Effects: Stain fungi often hasten the death of trees attacked by bark beetles.

What causes blue stain?

Blue stain is caused by microscopic fungi that commonly infect only the sapwood of trees, using parts of the sapwood (including simple sugars and starches) for food. Blue stain fungi are prone to cause bluish or grayish discoloration of the wood but they do not cause decay.

Is blue stain fungus poisonous?

Bluestain fungi are harmless. Decay fungi cause rot because they have the ability to digest the wood fibres and thus weaken the wood.

What does the fungi in blue stain feed on?

Instead, they feed on sugars, proteins, starches, and fats that are stored in bark and sapwood. For reasons that are not entirely clear, these fungi synthesize melanin in their hyphae, which is why they leave a trail of dark pigment wherever they grow.

What is a fungal stain?

Standard histological stains for fungi are Grocott (methanmine) silver (GMS) stain or Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS). The GMS stain is more sensitive than the PAS stain, but has a signal to noise issue in that it stains inflammatory cells (lysosomes) and tissue reticulin, in addition to fungi.

What is blue sap?

Blue stain fungi (also known as sap stain fungi) is a vague term including various fungi that cause dark staining in sapwood. The staining is most often blue, but could also be grey or black. Because the grouping is based solely on symptomatics, it is not a monophyletic grouping.

What is blued pine?

Blue pine is a term coined to describe pine lumber, usually from lodgepole pine trees, that has been infected and killed by the mountain pine beetle. The beetle introduces a fungus to the tree as it bores through the bark. The end result is the tree’s death. The fungus causes the blue staining throughout the tree.

Is there a blue stain?

From aqua to midnight, royal to periwinkle, blue exterior wood stain colors add a modern and eclectic feeling to decks, patios, and more.

Is Blue wood safe?

BluWood is non-toxic, nonvolatile, odourless and safe-to-use Bluwood is an ideal mould resistant coating to prevent indoor mould growth on wood-based materials. Bluwood provides long-term protection under conditions of high humidity.

What is the purpose of blue wood?

BluWood, developed by BluWood USA in New York in 2000, was developed to offer a new level of defense for wood framing components against the costly, damaging effects of mold, fungus and termites. All of which are extremely harmful to your homes structural wood shell and also to your health!

What does sap stain fungi do?

Blue stain fungi (also known as sap stain fungi) is a vague term including various fungi that cause dark staining in sapwood. The staining is most often blue, but could also be grey or black.

Why is cotton blue used to stain fungi?

Lactophenol cotton blue is a stain that is used to examine fungal elements following either a tape preparation or a scraping. This stain contains phenol, which will kill the organisms, lactic acid which preserves fungal structures, and cotton blue which stains the chitin found in the fungal cell walls.