British oak trees could be facing a plague worse than Dutch elm disease, which killed 30 million trees in the 1960s, the Independent on the weekend reported. It said the first case of the fungus, known as Sudden Oak Death, an organism related to that which causes potato blight, was discovered in a shrub at a garden centre in April. Forestry Commission experts were said to have ordered tests on ash, lime, chestnut, beech and birch trees, as well as the native oak, to find out which are susceptible. There is as yet no known case of the fungus, Phytophthora ramorum, infecting wild oak in Britain. A north American strain of the fungus has affected forests in 12 areas of California and a town in Oregon, the paper reported.