I received a plant from a friend who moved and it was doing find until a week ago. It is around 2 meters tall, it has 3 main woody stems and a bunch of others growing out of them. It has also some soft branches. The leaves are thin and pointy. It had small white flowers. A week ago my plant started to "spray" sticky liquid from the leaves and black lumps appeared on the stems. The lumps are round and have a diameter of about 0.5 cm. I would be really thankful if anybody could help me to find out what type is my plant and possibly what kind of disease it got!! Thanks a lot!!!
You can check if the "bumps" are scale and treat for that problem. Take a real close look (a magnifying glass helps); you might see lots of roundish things on the bark (the adults) and maybe even young ones (much smaller ones that get up and move around). Possibly you can clean them off with alcohol but you want to get them all. A systemic insecticide works easier but takes a couple of weeks to show results and check that it's made to work on your plant. Scale excrete a sticky sugary waste that attracts ants and leads to sooty mold, not a good thing. Good luck!
The alcohol won't hurt the plant. You don't pour it on the plant but apply with a Q-tip directly to the little critters...scale can be tough to get off so you might also try an alcohol wipe. Do try to get them all as little ones become big ones real quick. Again, that's assuming you know you've got scale. Do you have a University Agricultural Extension any where near you? These are staffed by volunteer master gardeners who could help you id your little offenders. Really a great resource, and it's free.
I said I might be way off:>) I think there are different species of the stuff and the photo "kinda" reminded of bamboo, which one I wasn't sure, if any.Anyway, I like your plant!
