The Korean sawmills have recently realized the importance of prevention of fungal discoloration due to increased losses in revenue. Before establishing integrated control strategies of fungal discoloration, more complete knowledge about causal organisms is needed. As a first step, we initiated a through survey of mold and stain fungi colonized commercially important softwood species (Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, and Pinus radiata ) in Korea. In this paper we report results obtained from radiata pine study. In winter 1998, fungi were isolated from radiata pine logs imported from New Zealand, and identified based on their cultural and morphological characteristics. A total of 843 fungi were isolated, representing 21 genera and 47 species. Trichoderma species were the most frequently isolated fungi. Many sapstain fungi, including Alternaria, Cladosporium, Cytospora, Epicoccum, Phialophora, and Rhinocladiella species were isolated although isolating frequencies were not high. Unlike our expectation, however, the anamorphs of Ophiostoma species, which is known as major fungal species colonized radiata pine sapwood, were isolated with relatively low frequencies, probably due to improper selection of culturing media. Also, fungal species of unknown biological significance such as Mucor species occurred with high frequencies.

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