Deadly Walnut Tree Fungus Found In Indiana

Thousand Cankers Disease, a fungus that kills walnut trees, has been found in Indiana for the first time. Photo courtesy Jeffrey Beall via Flickr.

NASHVILLE, Ind. (AP) — State wildlife officials say a fungus that kills walnut trees has been found in Indiana for the first time.

The state Department of Natural Resources says the fungus causing Thousand Cankers Disease was found on small weevils that emerged from two stressed trees at a black walnut plantation in Brown County's Yellowwood State Forest.

State entomologist Phil Marshall says the trees in the plantation aren't showing symptoms of the disease.

Indiana now joins Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania Tennessee, Virginia and eight western states with confirmed instances of the disease.

The fungus affects many types of walnut trees to varying degrees but is lethal to black walnut trees. Those trees are often grown in plantations in Indiana, but are also common in the state's urban and rural forests.