result, various agencies have taken different approaches to manage Florida torreya depending on which cause the decline is attributed to." In 2013, Smith was second author of a journal article that documented the canker pathogen as "a genealogically exclusive, phylogenetically distinct species representing one of the earliest divergences within the Gibberella clade of Fusarium." The team wrote of the problems of isolating, documenting, and distinguishing the many disease-causing forms of this genus, studied primarily as agricultural pests:"The identification of F. torreyae as F. lateritium by El-Gholl (El-Gholl 1985) and subsequent confirmation by Paul E. Nelson (D. Geiser pers comm) illustrate the daunting challenge presented by overly broad morphological concepts of fusaria, especially when applied to species that produce only sporodochial conidia. We speculate that the reported needle blight of Florida torreya induced by F. lateritium in a pathogenicity experiment (Alfieri et al. 1987) also can be attributed to F. torreyae; however, no isolate from this study was accessioned so the identity of this pathogen cannot be verified. Jason Smith was also a coauthor of a 2016 paper that reported closest relatives of the novel Fusarium torreyae. The team wrote, "Molecular clock estimates place the divergence of the FTOSC in the mid-Eocene, 40 Mya (O’Donnell et al. 2013), but it remains an open question whether this clade first evolved in the Old or New World. Furthermore, it remains to be determined whether F. torreyae is native to North America and restricted to T. taxifolia." As of 2022, there has been no determination as to whether Fusarium torreyae is native to North America or whether it entered as an exotic. Ultimate cause of die-off still unsolved The most recent U.S. government document pertaining to Torreya taxifolia official policy was published September 2021. It was a response to a "Petition to Downlist Florida Torreya" by Torreya Guardians founder Connie Barlow, which the agency received December 2019. Page 8 of the decision document states:"The primary decline in species abundance is thought to have resulted from fungal pathogens during the 1950s and 1960s, and/or a combination of environmental stress and native pathogens, but studies have yet to provide an explanation. As a result, the main threat for this species’ decline is still not well understood, even though considerable research and management activities have been and are presently conducted on this species." Conservation Actions Protect areas in species range Prior to the rather sudden and extreme