Disease Attacking Islands’ Coconut Trees
By Bobby Command, 19 Dec 2000, West Hawaii Today
Hawaii without coconut trees? Outlandish, unnatural and abnormal – but entirely possible.
A Maui landscaper said he has surveyed the Hawaiian Islands and has seen coconut heart rot disease across the state. If left unchecked, Philippe Visintainer said an epidemic could wipe out every coconut palm in Hawaii.
The fungus phytophthora katsurae has killed 20 percent of the trees on Maui, Visintainer said. While most of the infected trees have been found on the windward side of the islands, Visintainer said scattered outbreaks are beginning to occur in the drier leeward areas.
In the disease’s early visible stages, the young center leaf, or heart, turns brown and falls over. As the rot advances, remaining fronds droop and die. In its final stages, the top of the tree falls off. Visintainer, who has spearheaded a private sector battle against the disease, said he has spotted the coconut heart rot in Kailua Village. And when the symptoms are visible, Visintainer said, the condition is terminal.
“If left unchecked, this disease will spread and it will be impossible to control,” Visintainer said. “The University of Hawaii said we are already in an epidemic stage.”
Visintainer said scientists don’t know how the disease came to Hawaii, but they know it is carried by windblown rains, via insects, birds and mice, or by pruning and planting infected trees.
