So i was outside yesterday. "which was a beautiful
day to be outside " And i noticed little tiny black
spots on my bourganvillea's leaves. Then i started
looking around. It was on a dwarf orange tree, a few
maples, a nishiki willow and a few other plants. The
tree with the most was a nishiki willow. When you rub
it you can sometimes chip it off like scale, but most
of the time it smudges like tar. and then you have to
rub it off the leaf. I notice no apparant damage from
it. The majority of it is on the tops of leaves,
although i did notice some on the undersides of leaves
also. Unlike scale it is not always circular or oval
but seems to vary between cirles and ovals. Some
leaves had it bad tons of clumps and colonies of it.
But when scraping it off i saw no damage. It is shiny
and black like tar. It also clumps into raised forms
on the edge of leaves. Very strange. Anyone know if
this sounds like tar spot or scale or something else??

"Tar spot?" Never heard of it (and neither have the Ortho and
Southern Living "Problem Solver" books).

You MAY have the beginnings of a case of sooty mold, caused by
various sucking insects -- aphids, mealy bugs, white flies, etc.

Or, you may be seeing bug feces. Any of this that's large enough
to see is either left behind by caterpillars, or some of the
"good bugs" -- those that eat "bad bugs." With caterpillars, you
should see leaves chewed in from the edges. Good bugs are fairly
large and have jaws (pincers) that bad bugs fear -- as should
you. ;-)

Now for a comment on ugly leaves: It's that time of year again.
The leaves on your bonsai have about had it. They're having
their first thoughts of not being immortal. Brown, black, and
purple-yellow-etc. spots (that do NOT rub off!) on leaves are
entirely normal for mid to late summer and into early fall. When
you see spotty leaves, it doesn't necessarily mean your tree has
some dire disease. Late middle, and old, age is the most likely
culprit. The farther north you live, the more likely that
senescence is the problem -- though even my trees are showing
signs.

That said, members of the huge Rose family are more likely to get
bacterial leaf spot (black) at this time of year. Again, this is
age related and it is unlikely to do any permanent damage to your
tree. Remove and destroy.

So, spotted leaves don't mean "get out the Clearasil" (sp ;-).

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - The phrase
'sustainable growth' is an oxymoron. - Stephen Viederman

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