Response of maple sapwood to injury and infection

In sapwood challenge experiments in Acer rubrum, columns of discolouration initiated by wounding and inoculation with pioneer fungi (Cephalosporium sp., Phialophora sp.) were similar in size to untreated wounds. Inoculation with decay fungi (Pleurotus ostreatus, Trametes versicolor) produced larger columns of wound-initiated discolouration. The removal of bark around a bore wound caused a significantly larger column to form compared to the sum of the columns initiated by separate wounds. Stage-I discoloured wood, not associated with obviously rotted wood, had concentrations of mobile cations and soluble phenols similar to sapwood. Stage-II discoloured wood, spatially associated with rotted wood, was frequently bounded by a chemically distinct boundary layer and the discoloured wood contained significantly greater concentrations of mobile cations and soluble phenols than stage-I discououred wood.