Leaves

Stems/Twigs/Smaller Branches

Larger Branches or Trunk

Roots and ground line area





POPLAR - (Populus spp., excluding aspen)


AFFECTING LEAVES:

CONDITION
CAUSE
Leaves chewed
Cottonwood leaf beetle (Chrysomela scripta), Spiny elm caterpillar - morning cloak Butterfly(Nymphalis antiopa) - not usually damaging, Fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea), or Tussock moth (Dasychira vagans)
Webbing/Tents produced
Fall webworm (Hyphantria canea), Western tent caterpillar (Malacosoma californicum), or Forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria)
Small holes chewed in leaves
Flea beetles (chrysomelidae)
Leaves tunneled
Aspen leafminer (Phyllocnistis populiella)
Leaves spotted with young leaves blackened
Shoot blight (Venturia populina) or Frost injury
Black spots with yellow margins
Marssonina blight (Marssonina populi)
Black, irregular spots
Septoria leaf spot and canker (Septoria popolicole)
Blackish-brown round spot, which drops out of leaf, leaving shothole-like appearance
Ink spot (Ciborinia whetzelii)
Rust to orange colored spots
Conifer-aspen rust (Melampsora spp.)
Yellowed leaves
Root damage caused by under or over watering, or Iron chlorosis
White powdery material on upper or lower surface of leaves
Powdery mildew (Erysiphe cichoracerum)
Leaf petioles, veins with swelling
Petiole-gall aphids (Pemphigus spp.)
Leaves generally distorted and thickened
Poplar vagabond aphid (Mordwilkoja vagabunda)

AFFECTING TWIGS AND SMALLER BRANCHES:

CONDITION
CAUSE
Hollow swellings on new shoots
Petiole-gall aphids (Pemphigus spp.)
Terminal leaves distorted into thickened mass
Poplar vagabond aphid (Mordwilkoja vagabunda)
wigs shredded in irregular row
Cicada oviposition injury (Platypeisidae)
Swellings in twigs, small branches
Poplar gall borer (Superda inornata) or Hail injury (upper surface only)
Scales on twigs, branches
Oystershell scale (Lepidosophes ulmi)
Catkins grossly distorted and enlarged
Cottonwood catkin gall mite (Eriophyes neoessigi)

AFFECTING LARGER BRANCHES OR TRUNK:

CONDITION
CAUSE
Fungal fruiting bodies (mushrooms, conks) present
Stem decay fungi (various species)
Open wounds, internal decay, swollen areas in stem
Stem decay fungi (various species)
Masses of caterpillars resting on bark
Forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria)
Tunneling in trunk, often with orange staining ooze
Cottonwood borer (Plectodera scalator), Poplar borer (Saperda calcarata), Cottonwood Crown Borer
Clear to white oozing or frothy malodorous liquid exiting from wounds
Bacterial wetwood/slime flux
Areas of dead bark with discoloration and small pimple-like fruiting bodies (pycnidia)
Cytospora canker (Valsa spp., Leucostoma spp.)
Insects visiting oozing sap from trunk
Flies (various families)

AFFECTING ROOTS AND GROUND LINE AREA:

CONDITION
CAUSE
White root decay with white mycelial fans between bark and wood
Armillaria root disease (Armillaria mellea)
Gall at ground line
Crown gall (Agrobacterium tumefaciens)


Missoula County Extension Office; Missoula, Montana 59808 - Updated for 2006