Can anyone suggest what might be killing this cotoneaster?
Is the white stuff lichen and if so is it cause or effect?
The whole plant is going at once rather than a branch at a
time but the ones either side appear to be okay - so far!

http://www.tanygraig.force9.co.uk/E/...otoneaster.jpg
Sorry, but it is a reasonable size file in order to keep the detail.

The white stuff looks like lichen and, if so, it is merely an
irrelevance. I have it in large quantities on my yellow berberis
and nowhere else. And for why? It's because it gets sloughed
off the bark of even moderatedly fast-growing shrubs.

On the other hand, its growth looks a bit odd, and there isn't
quite enough detail for me to be sure of the identification.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I could leave the 'lichen' to grow bigger if I am sure the cotoneaster
doesn't have some awful disease. You can see this year's leaves
have grown before it decided to die so it is being killed fairly quickly.
Couldn't just be old age could it? The healthy ones should be the
same age which would be at least thirty years old.
T.