First Report of and Causing Canker and Dieback of in Slovenia.

In recent decades the vitality and productivity of European ash trees in Slovenia have been reduced by the onset of canker and dieback disease symptoms on young and old trees, identified primarily as ash dieback caused by . Given the limited information available about the etiology of this emerging disease, a study was carried out to isolate, identify, and characterize the fungal species involved in the observed ash symptoms. Field surveys were conducted in five forest sites where 50 symptomatic branch samples were collected.