My five year old, 20 foot silk tree (albizia julibrissin) has developed some disease or fungus that seems to be eating away the bark. It has survived and is growing and blooming beautifully but I suspect this problem will resurface as soons as the rainy season comes back. There must be a way to treat this problem or at least hold it at bay, other than cutting it down. It is the center piece of our back yard park-like setting. HELP!!
I joined this forum because of my recent discovery of the "Silk Tree". This is the only referance I found in respect to Pests & Diseases: http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/ALBJULA.pdf (a PDF file) It indicates a Disease called Mimosa (Fusarium) Wilt and can be fatal. But the various pests can be Cotton Cushion Scale, Mites and Mimosa Webworm. It would be a terrible shame to see this tree go! Maybe a picture or sample of the bark should be brought to a Pro. Barney
any chance of a picture or two of the affected bark areas? there are a number of cankers that may be the culprit.
Thank you for your help. Attached are three pictures of the damaged bark. It is drying out and peeling off. You can see the growing damage at the elbows of each large stem as well. This all happened so fast. One week there was a bit of 'disappearing bark' near the root and two weeks later the entire trunk was affected. Is there anything we can do to protect it or heal the damage through the wet season or is it doomed. Can I replace it with the same tree if it is terminal and what could be out there that is so unique. For now it is growing and blooming constantly, spreading out it's branches - a beautiful shade tree.
Hope i can help I dont know much about silk trees, but I do like them. I heard that they can grow up to 3 feet a year so you may be able to replace it if worst comes to worst. This site could tell you some more, http://www.floridata.com/ref/a/albizia.cfm. Many silk trees are affected by fungus, mainly older ones. Maybe this will help
