RE: Quercus agrifolia and leaf drop.

A quote from "City Trees", the March/April 2002 edition:
"Tree experts are anxiously running tests to determine whether redwoods, a key to the state's timber and tourism industries, are susceptible to a disease that has been laying waste to California oaks. The disease, called Sudden Oak Death (SOD), has killed tens of thousands of trees from Monterey County near San Francisco to southern Oregon, 500 miles away. Campsites have been closed and trees chopped down to try to contain the infection. The disease-causing organism, Phytophthora ramorum, is related to the organism believed to have caused the Irish potato famine in the mid-19th century. No cure has been found. "

It is a great sadness to travel up the coast and seesome of my favorite old beauties withering.  The disease is also threatening British oaks.


-----Original Message-----
From: david feix [d*@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 3:51 AM
To: doobieous@yahoo.com; medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Re: Quercus agrifolia and leaf drop.


I would suggest that you look to see if there are any
oak leaf caterpillers active on these bare trees.
Often you can tell there presence if there are lots of
their droppings underfoot, or you can often see them
hanging from the trees.


--- Doobieous <doobieous@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I was traveling though Carmel Valley today and
> noticed
> that at the main part of the valley, along the
> roadside, most of the oaks seemed to be entirely
> bare
> of leaves, as if they had gone deciduous, instead of
> evergreen like they normally are. I noticed that
> further down the valley, the oaks all had their
> leaves. I also saw a similar phenomenon on oaks
> around
> Ft. Ord. There's even a few trees on a nearby street
> that look like they've defoliated. Granted, these
> were
> growing mostly wild before the house property they
> sit
> on was developed, but the houses have been there for
> at least 8 years and suddenly i see them leafless. 
> 
> I might not have paid attention to them before, but
> i
> dont recall ever seeing them like this. The only
> trees
> entirely deciduous right now are the buckeyes, but
> going deciduous for them by late summer is normal.
> Any
> ideas if this is normal for this species?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Barry Garcia
> USDA: 9
> Sunset: 17
> Marina, CA
> North, Central, Coastal California.
> 
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