Decay capabilities of basidiomycetes colonizing air-seasoning red oak and blackgum railroad ties

Abstract

Fungi cultured from air-seasoning blackgum and red oak timbers were assessed for their ability to cause wood decay using two hardwoods and one softwood species in an AWPA E10 soil block test. Weight losses were greatest for bigleaf maple and tended to be much lower on southern pine. Almost a quarter of the 35 taxa tested caused less than 5 % weight loss, suggesting they posed a relatively low decay risk, even under ideal laboratory conditions; despite all fungi tested having the ability to depolymerize wood. Three of the four fungi causing the largest weight losses were brown-rot fungi, although brown-rot fungi represented an only small proportion of the total isolates from the original hardwood timbers. These results illustrate the wide array of decay capabilities of fungi colonizing air-seasoning red oak and blackgum timbers, and the potential of many isolates to negatively affect wood properties through biodeterioration.