'Tar Spot' Showing Up During Peak New England Foliage

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look closely at a maple tree in the past couple weeks,
and you may have noticed something alarming.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
We certainly get a lot of questions, whether what's going
on here? Why is this leaf this color? What's this spot?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Big growing black patches on the leaves, looking like someone
dribbled tar all over. It's appropriately called tar spot, a
fungal disease common to maple trees in Europe and North America.
Dan Cohen with the tree care company Hartney Graymont says
the disease doesn't harm the tree long term. It's mostly
cosmetic and.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
As the season progresses and then the portions of the
leaf the tissue actually dies back. That's when it becomes
that dark brown black and just generally becomes more noticeable
late summer towards a fall.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
He says, one of your trees having the spots, this
isn't really a big deal. It'd be more alarming if
the tree began to change color in the summer or
one of the branches began to die. Kyle Schaffeld Derby
Bus Boston's snows Radio