Natural spread of Verticillium wilt as effective constraint on Ailanthus altissima invasion

doi:10.3832/ifor4843-018

Natural spread of Verticillium wilt as effective constraint on Ailanthus altissima invasion

Claudia Maria Oliveira Longa⁽¹⁾, Maria Claudia Ferretti⁽²⁾, Daniele Andreis⁽²⁾, Giorgio Maresi⁽²⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 18, Issue 6, Pages 391-398 (2025)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4843-018
Published: Dec 22, 2025 - Copyright © 2025 SISEF

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Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle (tree-of-heaven) is a widespread tree classified as an invasive alien species in the European Union. Recently, severe wilt decay from Verticillium spp. infections in A. altissima trees has been reported in both Europe and the USA. In Italy, the disease was first observed in Trentino-South Tyrol in 2017. Since then, the progression of infection foci has been monitored, and the pathogens involved have been isolated and characterized at the molecular level. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of disease foci increased to 171, affecting entire valleys in this mountainous region. The foci appear unaffected by environmental conditions and impact trees in urban, peri-urban, and wooded areas. Attacks targeted both individual trees and clusters of various size. Dead plants were detected in 138 foci, and in some cases, complete disappearance of A. altissima was reported. Infected or dead seedlings/saplings were also observed in 97 foci. Verticillium dahliae was isolated from 103 foci and confirmed through real-time PCR assays using the VertBT primer. No wilting symptoms were observed in other tree species near the affected A. altissima individuals. Inoculation tests on A. altissima seedlings confirmed the pathogenicity of the isolates, while vine and apple seedlings showed no effects. The natural spread of V. dahliae foci proved very effective, showing few limitations in controlling A. altissima. Therefore, reporting and monitoring the natural spread of wilt could represent a preliminary response to the EU’s request to combat the invasion of A. altissima.

Keywords

Tree-of-Heaven, Decline, Invasive Species, Natural and Biological Control, Landscape Ecology

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0003-2819-2844
Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, San Michele all’Adige, TN (Italy)

(2)

0000-0002-4898-8076
0000-0001-6806-6135
Fondazione Edmund Mach, Technology Transfer Center, Via E. Mach 1, 38010 San Michele all’Adige, TN (Italy)

Corresponding author

Giorgio Maresi
giorgio.maresi@fmach.it

Citation

Oliveira Longa CM, Ferretti MC, Andreis D, Maresi G (2025). Natural spread of Verticillium wilt as effective constraint on Ailanthus altissima invasion. iForest 18: 391-398. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4843-018

Academic Editor

Pierluigi Paris

Paper history

Received: Mar 01, 2025
Accepted: Nov 25, 2025

First online: Dec 22, 2025
Publication Date: Dec 31, 2025
Publication Time: 0.90 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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