Holly Tree

The leaves on my holly tree and a strange brown mark on them. I have attached a picture and was wondering if anyone can tell me if it has some kind of disease. Many thanks for any responses.

 

oops, attachment didn't work. Will try again.

 

Fingers crossed

 

Hi Rocky Racoon

Well, your holly's spots don't look typical of leaf spot but that's all I can think it is. Leaf spot is a bit unsightly but not, as far as I'm aware, fatal. There are various types of leaf spot particular to different plants but the usual advice is practise good plant hygiene, take off the affected leaves (where this is practicable) and ensure the plant is helped to grow vigorously. You can try a fungicide when the weather is better but I suspect the holly won't absorb it well. It would be worth Googling "holly leaf spot" and see what you get.

 

My guess would be some kind of insect attack when the leaves were still soft and while forming.

If thats the case there's not much you can do now.

Just keep an eye open for insects when new leaves are forming next spring.

When was the picture taken?

 

If the damage is recent, it could just be wind / temperature damage. Holly is prone to sudden temperature drops, especially this year when nothing seemed to stop growing because of the warm weather.

http://www.treehelp.com/trees/holly/holly-iandd.asp

 

The picture was taken last summer, and I noticed the brown markings some weeks before hand. Will look for insects and see what I find. Holly trees are not the easiest things to investigate physically are they, my blooming hands are in bits from taking the xmas lights off it.

 

I'm sure we had these on ours and it wasn't at all fatal, just a little bit unsightly...

After some sniffing around I came to the conclusion it's just a bacterial thing that you can't help, as it's spread by insects and/or rainfall. Can't really avoid either of those! :/

All we did was keep an eye on it and prune off the affected leaves (as Flinty says, where that is practical to do so).

 

It's called Holly Leaf Miner. Adult flies lay an egg in the leaf in late spring/summer, larvae hatch and eat inside the leaf. They remain in the leaf until the following spring, when they repeat the process. It's difficult to control, but does little damage.

 

Many thanks for all your replies, as most have said, it does not seem to be harmful whatever it is. Will try and give it a good trim .

 

looks like insects to me