Sweet Gum Tree Bark Disease

These will do no lasting harm to the tree.

Sweet gum tree bark disease. With that amount of peeling if it were a disease then you would probably see branch dieback in the top of the tree. The american sweetgum is often planted as a street tree in surburban areas but it also can tend to form. Botryosphaeria canker botryosphaeria dothidea is a fungal disease of sweet gum trees. Sorry to hear about your sweet gum tree.

The outer layer of bark on a tree functions to protect the living layers that lie just beneath it. Turkey tail fungus trametes versicolor is found on cut or fallen wood or on wounded areas of living sweet gum trees. It typically colonizes the sapwood of trees stressed by drought sunburn or. The leaves look like sweetgum but the bark is suspicious.

This means that any damage sustained to the trunk that results in a substantial loss of bark will certainly have an effect on the performance of the tree. Generally attacking weakened or wounded sweet gum trees botryosphaeria kills bark and displays areas of dead tissue referred to as cankers. The most common diseases of sweet gum tree are canker diseases including bleeding necrosis which can invade the trunk causing bleeding. The tiny dots on the leaves appear to be some previous feeding damage by an insect.

Blights might be caused by drought conditions but little is known about these types of diseases of the sweet gum. Inside the tree the inner bark shows a dark reddish brown stain. Those most likely to affect sweet gum are sweetgum scale cottony cushion scale and. Adequate watering and fertilization will check this.

The tree looks as if a can of oil has been poured on the bark. Matthew barlow nursery manager at earthworksjax shares the history and continuing legacy through suckering of a sweet gum tree at the nursery. Three types of scale the tiny insects that look like diseased bumps on plants are associated with sweet gum. Bleeding necrosis this fungal disease is signaled by the presence of a dark stain on tree bark within a few feet of the soil line or rarely up higher on the trunk.