Sick pines
Almost everywhere in Japan, you can see pines dying from the pine wilt disease. It is caused by a very small, wormlike organism called the pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, and has been introduced in Japan in the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, it has first spread along the coastal areas of Japan, and is now covering almost all areas in Japan, except the cold regions of Aomori and Hokkaido.
posted by Julia @ 5:21 PM
2 Comments:
Beautiful photo. Interesting information too. Sorry to hear that all your pine trees are dying. Is there no cure?
Fortunatly, not all japanese pines are dying; I read that in the late seventies, the infected area was about 25% of the total pine forest area. But in the following years, a lots of measures had been taken to control the disease. So although you still can see it all over Japan, not all trees are ill.
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