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Questions & Answers
Norway Columnar Maple
jorunnscheid@ asks:
Question
We planted a Norway Columnar Maple in our garden 6 years ago in Chicago. We have had a lot of white residue on the leaves once the heat of summer kicked in and this year only one side (or about half) the tree has leaves. The top looks healthy with leaves all aroud. Do we wait a year to see how it will be next year - without trimming off ay branches, or do we trim off all what appears dead which would be about 6 feet and let it continue up or should we have it dug up and replaced... I appreciate your feed back. Happy FOurth of July! Jorunn Scheiderich
Answer
Jorunn, sounds as though your Norway Maple is getting anthracnose fungi. Anthracnose fungi occur primarily on the leaves and twigs of deciduous trees. The fungi overwinter in infected twigs or dead leaf litter. In spring the fungi produces numerous microscopic spores that spread from splashing rain or irrigation to the new growth where they germinate causing the white powdery appearance and eventually leaf drop. Anthracnose is often worse during wet humid springs and unfortunately hard to control and generally not worth the cost. The best defense is to plant resistant species. The other more serious possibility is a type of root fungi, like verticillium wilt in which case the tree will slowly continue to decline. Try making a few cuts in the area that has been defoliated if the tissue looks green the limbs are still alive, if the tissue looks brown or gray its is dead and should be removed. I would give the maple sometime, if defoliation continues up the tree this year or next season the tree should be removed.
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