DRASTIC measures could be taken to stop a disease that devastated oak trees in the United States spreading throughout Scotland and potentially infecting our wild heather.
A scheme costing up to £350,000 a year could be used to tackle the disease, which some experts argue has the potential to devastate swaths of shrubs and trees in Scotland.
Some horticulturists think it even has the potential to spread to Scotland
's heathland, where it could have a devastating impact on wild heather.
The fungus killed scores of oak trees in California – giving it the name "sudden oak death" – before it arrived in the UK, where it has mainly affected Rhododendron ponticum.
Until September last year, outbreaks in Scotland had been limited to private nurseries – but then it struck in a National Trust public garden for the first time, on the west coast.
Now the Scottish Government is consulting as to whether efforts to stop the spread need to be stepped up to prevent it getting into the wild.
Measures being considered include destroying all Rhododendron ponticum plants in woodlands and gardens where the disease is spotted, and more frequent inspections of nurseries, gardens and forests.
David Knott, a curator at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, where disinfectant footbaths have been placed to try to keep out the disease, thinks a tough stance needs to be taken. He said the biggest danger was the disease escaping into the wild – where he worries Scotland's heather could be at risk, because it is in the same family as Rhododendron ponticum.
"It has the potential to cause problems, not just in gardens but certainly in the wider environment," he said.
In Cornwall, it has already affected blaeberry, which, like rhododendron and heather, is in the ericaceae family. It has also killed scores of beech trees.
Mr Knott said there was a lack of knowledge about the potential of the disease to spread. "Until we understand it more fully, we have to take it very seriously," he said.
He thinks pulling up Rhododendron ponticum would have extra benefits, as it is a weed that grows so rampantly it smothers other species and is bad for biodiversity.
Scientists are carrying out research to try to find out more about which plants can act as host to the fungus, and to work out exactly how it spreads. It is thought spores are spread from plant to plant by rainwater, on footwear and by animals.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said the consultation would "draw on the experience of experts and stakeholder groups" to work out the best way of tackling the problem.
