Heart rot

In trees, heart rot is a fungal disease that causes the decay of wood at the center of the trunk and branches.

Heart rot is a major factor in the economics of logging and the natural growth dynamic of many older forests.

An average fungus will advance in the heartwood by 6–8 centimeters per year,[1] and extensive development in the wood tissue is needed before mushrooms or conks are produced.

Heart rot causes huge profit loss in the logging industry every year due to damaged and decayed timber.

It is estimated that about one third of annual timber (20 billion board feet) harvest is lost due to some form of rot.

It results in trees that cannot be sold due to substantial decay and introducing ideal rot conditions into younger forests that would normally not be as susceptible.

In older-growth forests, trees are unable to combat heart rot effectively because they grow at a much slower pace.

The tree grows around the decayed wood tissue and prevents the fungus from spreading to a larger area of the trunk.