Pathology

Research activities presently being conducted are: disease surveillance in forest nurseries and reforestation sites; plant parasitic nematode infection in the nurseries; sap stain study and decay of commercial timber in peat swamp forests. The pathological surveys in reforestation areas involve the study of disease incidence and its characteristics on rattans, Acacia mangium, Shorea macrophylla, Dryobalanops beccarii and Tectona grandis. Such information is vital as the private sector ventures into large scale forest plantations. Investigation on sap stain is conducted on light-coloured timber which is highly susceptible to the fungal attack. Timber with such unsightly discoloration would not fetch a good price.

Other projects carried out include the collection of fungal specimens from various forest types for reference materials and ethnomycology.

Reference Collection

The pathological materials in the collection consist of macrofungi, diseased plant specimens, stained timber samples and nematodes. A total of 4850 macrofungi specimens, comprising 60 families have been recorded, the majority of which are from the Agaricales and Aphyllophorales.