I have a hawthorne tree in my front yard. My neighbor has several in
his yard (he's more of a lawn guy than a tree guy, so I haven't asked
him about this yet). I just moved to this house this summer.

All the hawthorne trees are loaded with fruit, but all of the fruit is
deformed, with spots & with gray-colored dry scabs/fungus. It looks
like a very thin layer of concrete or flour paste. But the weird thing
is that the leaves are flawless!

I can't find any reference to a disease that attacks the fruit without
affecting the leaves as well. Is it a climate thing, from this
summer's drought? The fruit looks downright mutagenic, & I can't find
a single normal berry anywhere on the tree.

If I can't pinpoint it, I'll have to just spray the tree next spring
with whatever I can find at the local hardware store, & I hate to thow
chemicals around without knowing what exactly I'm fighting.