North America is home to 91 species of oak trees. Astoundingly, the various species rarely, if ever, occur alone. Where one kind of oak is found, invariably at least one more will be found. How can nature support a setup like that when it operates on the principle that only the fittest survive in any one setting?

Plant pathologists from the California Department of Agriculture (CDFA) recently identified a new species of fungal pathogen that infects oak, chinkapins, and tanoaks. Until recently, North American diagnosticians called all species of the genus Tubakia that infects oaks in North America, Tubakia dryina, because they all have very similar morphological features to this European fungus. However, a new study shows that the North American species vary genetically from Tubakia dryina. Among these is the newly recognized California species.

The Oaks of the Americas Conservation Network (OACN) is an interdisciplinary consortium of oak experts from universities, botanic gardens, arboreta, conservation NGOs, and industry and government agencies aiming to address the research and conservation needs for oaks in the Western Hemisphere. In the short time since its founding in 2016, OACN has been able to make important progress on a number of projects and initiatives focused on oaks in the Americas. Here is a review of some of the work OACN has completed in 2017: