A student plopped a leaf on my desk, pointed to several green lumps on its underside, and asked, “What are those green growths?” It was a stump-the-professor moment, and in this case, I was indeed ...

Answer: Your tree has galls. Hackberries are great native trees that are tolerant of many temperature, soil condition and moisture extremes. They have a few problems that are mostly cosmetic. The gall ...

Dear Neil: What are the pimple-like growths on the leaves of my hackberry tree? Are they harmful? Those are insect galls that result when the female insect stings the leaves of the tree and lays her ...

I was standing at Pavilion 1 in Lancaster County Central Park one day early in June when a hackberry butterfly landed on my left arm. Immediately its long, straw-like mouth came out and I could feel ...

A gall is an abnormal growth or swelling of a plant caused by hormones released from insects, mites, bacteria, or nematodes. They can appear on any part of the plant with vast variation in morphology, ...

As mentioned in the previous garden update, galls that form on tree leaves rarely cause much in the way of tree stress. But there are also galls that form on other parts of trees. In most cases, gall ...

It can be unnerving to find that the leaves of an oak or hackberry tree are as bumpy as a rock-covered seashore in late summer. Other trees’ leaves may break out in acne-like red spots or sport ...

You’re admiring the stalwart limbs and sculpted leaves of your handsome oak tree, and suddenly you see them: warty bulges clustered along the branches like bunches of freaky grapes. There’s no need to ...

Each year in late spring and early summer, homeowners begin noticing strange growths on the leaves or stems and are concerned for the health of their trees. Several different types of galls are common ...

A student plopped a leaf on my desk, pointed to several green lumps on its underside, and asked, “What are those green growths?” It was a stump-the-professor moment and in this case, I was, indeed, ...