An aggressive plant disease which has the potential to devastate Ireland's oldest remaining oak woods has struck a number of rhododendron bushes in Killarney National Park, Co Kerry.
The disease, known as sudden oak death, is already dispersed throughout the 26,000-acre park and has been reported in major tourist areas such as Torc and Ross Island where it has affected rhododendrons. Leaf spots, needle-tip blight and canker are among the symptoms.
Surveys so far have identified 25 infected rhododendron ponticum bushes and park staff are cutting out affected areas.
Amid concern the disease could spread, warning signs were erected at park entrances in Killarney this weekend. The public is being asked not to remove any vegetation from the park to prevent a further spread of the disease, scientifically known as phytophthora ramorum.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the Department of Agriculture and Science are both involved in the fight against the disease. "There's a serious threat to the native woodlands and everything possible is being done to protect them," said NPWS divisional manager Paddy O'Sullivan.
So far no traces of the disease, believed to have come into the country on imported plants, have been found on oak trees in the Killarney area.
Arbutus and yew trees were also at risk, Mr O'Sullivan said.
First reported in the US in the mid-1990s, the disease attacks azaleas, big-leaf maple, huckleberry, laurel, camellia, along with honeysuckle and Douglas fir. It has destroyed thousands of oak in California and Oregon.
There have also been a number of findings in Britain and the Netherlands.