Weird Maple

[Jeff]

Hey!
Has anybody seen anything like this? I thought at first it had something to do with my fertilizer broadcaster throwing on the leaves, except I now find it on higher branches, to high to have been hit with the 12-12-12.

[Jeff]

Close up

[RavioliKid]

I have seen it before. I don't know what it is, though.

Do you suppose that deer ticks bit the leaves and now they have lyme disease?  

[Jeff]

Jeez I hope not! Thats about 10 feet from my bedroom window!

[Tom]

Hey......what's the rule for spelling Weird?
"i" before "e" except after "c"....unless it's weird?

[timberbeast]

Birdseye leaves?  I haven't a clue!

[Jeff]

Sure would make it easier to find birdseye  wouldn't it!

[Bill Johnson]

Assuming its not a response from your tree to your snoring   then I'd have to suggest it may be a leaf spot of some kind. Now that makes sense leaf+spot=leaf spot.
I haven't been able to identify the actual type but according to what I found on a USDA Forest Service site leaf spots are caused by various fungi. Fungi overwinter in leaf tissue;spores are disseminated by wind and rain.
Small round to angular spots, variable in size and color(see I can spell American as well as Canadian maybe I am bilingual) appear on leaves.
Defoliation may occur in extreme cases.
Controls include:
Rake and destroy fallen infected leaves.
Maintain high vigor through cultural practices.
Control with a chemical fungicide.

Any way I'll do a little more digging to see if I can nail it down or maybe one of the other guys will know it right off.

Bill

[Jeff]

What ever it is, it is actually kind of pretty. I would imagine the leaves will eventually die or turn brown.

What you might not be able to pick up in the photo, is that each "bullseye" has a hole clear through the leaf. If you look close at the close up you can see it.

[RavioliKid]

Well, dang!

I picked up my monitor and there were those little tiny holes.

That probably rules out maple-lyme disease.

Maple-lyme. That sounds like some yucky new flavor of ice cream.

[Tom]

Bill, I think you are right.

It's been almost 40 years and I don't have any of my Botony books handy but it looks like a fungal leafspot. Leafspots are caused by either fungus or bacteria but the bacterial ones, if I remember right are generally irregularly shaped.  To really be sure it would probably take a lab. exam.

A give away is the spot in the center of the yellow area.  The spot is usually a mass of mycelium or fruiting bodies.  Viral and bacterial diseases are usually internal and follow veinage or are general because they block the internal nutrient paths.

It looks a lot like early peanut leafspot but somehow I don't figure that would show up on a Maple in Michigan.

I am not up on new fungicides but it seems to me that copper was good as a fungicide and Daconil is pretty universal.

One of the foresters should know.  This is just one of my interests having been a minor but don't take me too seriously I don't want to mislead anyone.

Tom

[Ron Scott]

Yes, it looks like leaf spot. It hasn't been too serious.

[L. Wakefield]

I've seen that off and on my entire life here in Maine. It has never been very prevalent and (alas) I haven't zeroed in on whether it's more frequently seen in red maple that sugar maple- or in wet area- or in young trees- etc. It KINDA seems it might be more often in young red maples that are spindly- but then that's the kind that would hang over and put these leaves right in your face..
  I remember thinking it was about as frequent and probably as (in)significant as the little red thready looking things (growths) that I have seen on cherry leaf. Didn't seem to hurt the tree any. Not like bagworms or tent caterpillars.

                      lw

[Ron Scott]

I believe that the Extension Service has some more specific information on leaf spot. I recall some news articles on it last year.