Lucidus Root and Butt Rot, caused by Ganoderma lucidus USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection, Southern Region Lucidus Root and Butt Rot, caused by Ganoderma lucidus Importance. It has a wide host range including oaks, maples, hackberry, ash, sweetgum, locust, elm, mimosa, and willows, and is found throughout the South. Host trees normally decline for a variable period of time and then die. Identifying the Fungus. They have a stem, the tops are reddish to buff-colored, and the white undersurface is porous.
Conks are tough, woody, and persistent.
Identifying the Injury. The rotten roots are white and spongy, with black flecks or dark lines. This fungus invades trees stressed or wounded by a variety of agents, including fire, soil compaction, construction injury, vehicular damage, herbicide injury, and lawnmowers. Airborne spores contact the wounds and invade susceptible tissue, spreading up into the butt of the tree or down into the root system, or both. Colonization of healthy trees may also occur through root grafts or contacts with diseased roots.