Black/brown dots on leaves

Hello. I have a tree in my garden whose leaves have this summer developed big, nasty black/brown dots all over them. I think it has caught this nasty disease from the tree behind my garden in a small wild area which also has big black/brown dots on its leaves. Can I do anything to cure this or are my treeâ??s days numbered?

I'm not sure what type of tree I have but I think the one behind is an oak.

Thanks

Julie xx

 

Hi Julie

Welcome to the Forum.

We really need a picture in order to help you because your description could cover quite a range of conditions, harmful or harmless. And it's important to know which type of tree is in your garden.

Mature oak trees are host to numerous diseases, lichen, fungi and algae but they can live on for many years. Other trees are not as resilient.

 

Hi Julie,

Post a pic please if you can to help us identify the tree and problem. Often black spots on leaves are nothing but an unsightly pain in the bum but rarely fatal to the tree.

 

Hello. Here are pics of the tree and one of the leaves that have fallen off. They are a bit blurry but I hope good enough for you to see what you need?

Many thanks for all your help.

Julie xx

 

Hi Julie

Your tree looks like a sycamore to me. I used to have a neighbour with a sycamore tree which also had spotty leaves and most of them used to end up in my garden! I never knew what the cause was but that tree just got bigger and bigger.

No doubt treesurfer will be able to help you with a definitve opinion.

 

Hi Julie,

As soon as you mentioned "I have a tree in my garden whose leaves have this summer developed big, nasty black/brown dots all over them," I thought to myself she's got a sycamore suffering from tar spot. And lo and behold; you have!

Tar spot (Rhytisma acerinum) is a fungal infection that, although making the tree look unsightly, does not affect the tree's vigour. Sycamores are extremely prone to this infection and it would've been only a matter of time until yours got infected also. Control is uneccessary, costly and time consuming as you would have to cover every single leaf in fungicide. You can rake up and burn/mulch/nuke the fallen leaves in the autumn and winter to cut down on the amount of overwintering spores. This should make the problem less the following year.

Hope this helps,
Matthew

 

Many thanks x