Transcription of video clip Butternut conservation

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© Jardin botanique de Montréal
Caroline Tanguay

I'm presently doing a master's degree in biology on the butternut. So, it's in plant conservation.

The butternut is found only in eastern North America, and this fungus has been infecting trees since the 70s.

So, the trees are all dying because of this disease.

© Caroline Tanguay
The canker attacks this butternut's trunk.

That is a trunk, the base of a butternut trunk that is infected by the canker. We can see the black spots, the crumbling bark.

If we were to take off the bark here, there would be a hollow underneath, and the fungus would be exactly there, like a black paste.

It's as if the fungus caused the bark to decompose. Fundamentally, what the fungus does is attack the cambium.

The cambium is the part in between the bark and the wood. By attacking the cambium, it causes the tree to die.

If it attacks the cambium all around the tree, the tree dies.

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