Extension > Garden > Diagnose a problem > What's wrong with my plant? > Deciduous > Buckeye > Dead or dying branches
Buckeye > Trunk/branches > Dead or dying branches
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Verticillium wilt
Verticillium dahliae and V. albo-atrum
- Leaves are small and yellow in chronic infections
- Leaves turn brown from the edges and tips, wilt and die in severe infections
- Leaf symptoms are often seen on only one or a few random branches in the canopy
- Dark olive to gray streaks are often visible in the sapwood if the bark is peeled back, appearing as rings or arcs in a cross section
- Symptoms may develop over a single season, or over several years
- More information on Verticillium wilt
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Armillaria root rot
Armillaria spp.
- Infected trees have poor growth, dead branches in the upper canopy, undersized and/or yellow leaves
- Flat white sheets of fungal growth (mycelial fans) between the bark and sapwood at the base of infected trees
- Thick black, shoestring-like fungus can sometimes be seen under the bark, around roots and in the soil around the base of the tree
- Wood is decayed, white, soft and spongy; this may extend from the base of the tree well up into the trunk
- Trees frequently break or fall over in storms
- Clusters of honey-colored mushrooms may grow at the base of the tree in fall
- More information on Armillaria root rot
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Oystershell scale
Lepidosaphes ulmi
- Heavy infestations can completely cover bark
- Feeding can cause foliage to yellow
- Twig and branch dieback can occur when branches are heavily infested
- Light to dark brown, elongated, 1/10 to 1/8 inch long, found feeding on branches
- Damage occurs during summer
- More information on Oystershell Scale
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Heart rot
Polyporus squamosus and Oxyporus populinus
- Fungal fruiting bodies arise along the stem, near a pruning wound, crack or other wound
- Many shapes and sizes of fungal bodies may be seen
- Polyporus fungi produce mushrooms 12" or more across, yellow-tan above with a short dark stalk
- Oxyporus may be a white corky mass of fungal growth or a thick white shelf fungi 6" across, often covered with green moss
- The canopy may show no symptoms or may have small yellowing leaves or dead branches depending on the extent of the trunk decay
- In cross section of the trunk, the wood at the center is discolored, soft, crumbling, stringy or spongy
- More information on heart rot
