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Michigan adds beech leaf disease to invasive list

LANSING (AP) — Beech leaf disease has been added to Michigan’s invasive species watch list and state officials are asking residents to be on the lookout for trees infested with the damaging disease.

The disease, which has not been found in Michigan, was discovered in Ohio in 2012 and has been identified in seven eastern states and Ontario, Canada, said officials with Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Beech leaf disease is associated with a microscopic worm that enters and spends the winter in leaf buds. It causes damage to leaf tissue on American beech and European and Asian beech species resulting in darkened, thick tissue bands between leaf veins, creating a striped effect on the leaves, leaf distortion and bud mortality.

Trees weakened by leaf damage become susceptible to other diseases and can die within six years.

Michigan is home to about 32 million American beech trees.

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