Hey!
Has anybody seen anything like this? I thought at first it had something to do with my fertilizer broadcaster throwing on the leaves, except I now find it on higher branches, to high to have been hit with the 12-12-12.
(https://forestryforum.com/images/maple.jpg)
Close up
(https://forestryforum.com/images/YaBBImages/userpics/mapleclose.jpg)
I have seen it before. I don't know what it is, though.
Do you suppose that deer ticks bit the leaves and now they have lyme disease? :D
Jeez I hope not! Thats about 10 feet from my bedroom window! :o ;)
Hey......what's the rule for spelling Weird?
"i" before "e" except after "c"....unless it's weird? ::)
Birdseye leaves???? I haven't a clue!
Sure would make it easier to find birdseye wouldn't it!
Assuming its not a response from your tree to your snoring :D then I'd have to suggest it may be a leaf spot of some kind. Now that makes sense leaf+spot=leaf spot.
I haven't been able to identify the actual type but according to what I found on a USDA Forest Service site leaf spots are caused by various fungi. Fungi overwinter in leaf tissue;spores are disseminated by wind and rain.
Small round to angular spots, variable in size and color(see I can spell American as well as Canadian maybe I am bilingual) ::) appear on leaves.
Defoliation may occur in extreme cases.
Controls include:
Rake and destroy fallen infected leaves.
Maintain high vigor through cultural practices.
Control with a chemical fungicide.
Any way I'll do a little more digging to see if I can nail it down or maybe one of the other guys will know it right off.
Bill
What ever it is, it is actually kind of pretty. I would imagine the leaves will eventually die or turn brown.
What you might not be able to pick up in the photo, is that each "bullseye" has a hole clear through the leaf. If you look close at the close up you can see it.
Well, dang!
I picked up my monitor and there were those little tiny holes.
That probably rules out maple-lyme disease.
Maple-lyme. That sounds like some yucky new flavor of ice cream.
Bill, I think you are right.
It's been almost 40 years and I don't have any of my Botony books handy but it looks like a fungal leafspot. Leafspots are caused by either fungus or bacteria but the bacterial ones, if I remember right are generally irregularly shaped. To really be sure it would probably take a lab. exam.
A give away is the spot in the center of the yellow area. The spot is usually a mass of mycelium or fruiting bodies. Viral and bacterial diseases are usually internal and follow veinage or are general because they block the internal nutrient paths.
It looks a lot like early peanut leafspot but somehow I don't figure that would show up on a Maple in Michigan.
I am not up on new fungicides but it seems to me that copper was good as a fungicide and Daconil is pretty universal.
One of the foresters should know. This is just one of my interests having been a minor but don't take me too seriously I don't want to mislead anyone.
Tom
Yes, it looks like leaf spot. It hasn't been too serious.
I've seen that off and on my entire life here in Maine. It has never been very prevalent and (alas) I haven't zeroed in on whether it's more frequently seen in red maple that sugar maple- or in wet area- or in young trees- etc. It KINDA seems it might be more often in young red maples that are spindly- but then that's the kind that would hang over and put these leaves right in your face..
I remember thinking it was about as frequent and probably as (in)significant as the little red thready looking things (growths) that I have seen on cherry leaf. Didn't seem to hurt the tree any. Not like bagworms or tent caterpillars.
lw
I believe that the Extension Service has some more specific information on leaf spot. I recall some news articles on it last year.