His 1987 pathology team identified a half-dozen "associated microorganisms," mostly fungi. The team reported that since 1962, "natural populations have drastically diminished for reasons not fully understood. No reproduction from seed is taking place and only stump sprouts can be found in native areas." The canker disease had also spread to plants cultivated outside the native range such as in the University of Florida campus in Gainesville and in the Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park in Tallahassee. An achievement in disease understanding was offered by the team in their 1987 paper: "the first documented report of pathogenicity." It was team member Nabih Elias El-Gholl who had made the initial discovery in 1985, now worked into a full report in this 1987 publication. The pathogen, Fusarium lateritium, is a kind of filamentous fungus that infected and killed torreya needles in laboratory experimentation. It has a global distribution and infects a variety of agricultural plants. Fusarium is a species-rich genus, and it is highlighted here because in 2011 its role in torreya pathology gained renewed attention as a lethal pathogen. At that time, the fungal agent would be documented as the cause of stem cankers, and it would be awarded a new species name, Fusarium torreyae. The role of habitat deterioration in the die-off Following the 1984 listing of Torreya taxifolia as federally endangered, the first recovery plan (1986) included a list of numerous fungal species "associated with diseases" affecting this species. No pathogen was presented as the dominant or sole cause of the sudden and extreme die-off of virtually all the reproductively mature stems. Fusarium genus was included in the list, though linked with "root rot" rather than needle necrosis as the disease symptom. The recovery plan, however, suggested that pathogens may be the "proximate causes," with "environmental factors" entailing the ultimate cause or causes:"The occurrence of multiple fungi, some of them known to be soil inhabitants and opportunistic pathogens of several plant species, suggests that the fungal infections are merely symptoms of another underlying cause of decline" (page 6). "The decline of Torreya taxifolia in its native habitat may ultimately be due to environmental factors that stressed the trees, including alteration of its forest habitat, alteration of vegetation above the ravines it inhabits, alteration of water seepage into the ravines, or droughts. The proximate causes of the decline are an assortment of fungal infections, resulting in stem cankers, stem