Black spots on leaves

Today was the last day of mowing for the year, I’d guess – and while the grass was a little long, the mowing was mainly to mulch up leaves. I usually do this once a year just to get some leaf matter into the soil.

From this point on, it’s raking until the trees run bare.

As I was mowing today, I noticed some maple leaves – not from our maple, but I believe from the tree of our backyard neighbors – with black spots on them.

The more I looked, the more I found. I’m guessing this is either some sort of fungal infection or – possibly – an insect issue. The former is the most likely, but many of the black spots on the leaves appear to have a perforation at the center, so it could be emanating from an insect bite/larvae.

Not really a surprise, as the weather this past year has been decidedly un-foliage friendly: A mostly mild, low snow winter kept the water table down and didn’t allow plants to harden off properly; the summer was hot and very dry. Only now – in late September through October are we getting the water large trees, especially, need to thrive.

Stressed out trees are susceptible to various types of injuries, including pests and fungi.

Hope the neighbors’ tree is not permanently damages; a few years ago they had to take down a huge elm that completely changed their backyard (and gave us more light, which was good). Time will tell…