Butt rot is a disease of plants, mostly trees, caused by fungi. The fungus attacks the moist and poorly protected undersurface of tree trunk's thickest part (the "butt" above the root, as opposed to "top"), where the end of the stem makes contact with the soil. It may affect the roots as well, causing a disease known as root rot. It then moves up into the interior of the plant, producing a roughly conical column of dead, rotted plant matter, up to one and a half meters long in severe cases. Such an infection is likely to impair the transport properties of the xylem tissue found at the center of the stem. It also reduces the stem's structural properties and makes the plant more vulnerable to toppling. One particularly virulent species of fungus associated with butt rot is Serpula himantioides.
External links
Root and Butt Rots of Oaks (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/Ornamental/odin30/od30.htm) - North Carolina State University
Rot in the parent tree and its invasion of cut stumps may serve to infect the new stand with root rot fungi.
The white rot fungi enzymatically digest both cellulose and lignin and reduce the wood to a light-colored, spongy, or stringy mass with white pockets or streaks separated by thin areas of firm wood.
The rotted column, which is never wider than the diameter of the tree at the time of injury, may extend 10 feet or more above and below the area where the pioneer organisms and decay fungus entered the tree or where its fruiting bodies (conks or mushrooms) appear.
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