Hi folks, I have been browsing around for a while now, trying to find someone who might be able to answer this question for me. I am a resident of southern Florida and have four queen palms in my yard. For the past six months or so, I have noticed that the flowers (or inflorescences, I think) are damaged and malformed when they break out of their pods. Most of the damage seems to be near the latter one-third of the flower near its tip. Instead of emerging as yellow, the top portions of the flowers are brown to black, some even appearing to be covered by a white, moldy fungus. The rest of the flower seems okay, but this portion appears undeveloped and diseased. Later, after the small petals of the flower fall and the stem begins developing fruit, the area that is damaged never develops any, and basically just hangs there, looking dead. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to affect the rest of the tree, which appears to be fine. This started affecting just one of my palms, and then I noticed that all of them, except for one, developed (or caught) it, soon after. Not sure if the last is just a little late or if its immune to it. My queen palms are about 10 years old now, and this is the first time I've seen this. I took some pictures, but I don't know how to post them. I will gladly post if I find out how. Anyone heard of this before? Thanks in advance. :)
