UConn Plant Diagnostic Laboratory

A passionflower house plant came into the lab with some beautiful anthracnose symptoms. Anthracnose is a fungal disease, and I’ve seen a lot of it in the past year. In passionflower, it causes large cankers on the stem that eventually kill off entire branches and can kill the plant. Swipe through for more photos ⏩⏩⏩.
.
.
1️⃣&2️⃣: the large canker that is in the process of killing the stem.
.
.
3️⃣&4️⃣: another area of the canker that has progressed. You can see the tan-orange fruiting bodies that the fungus produces when it is ready to emit spores.
.
.
5️⃣: Spores of the fungus that causes Anthracnose, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides.
.
.
.
.
#plant #lab #sick #passiflora #passionflower #plantpathology #plantbased #plantparent #plantparenthood #plantclub #houseplant #houseplantclub #houseplantsofinstagram #houseplantsmakemehappy #fungus #fungi #fungiphotography #fungilove #plantpathology #greenhouse #ornamental #uconnimpact #uconnextension @uconnpsla @uconnextension ...

On the wildly warm weekend, I found myself out at @elizabethpark_hartfordct looking for some interesting plant samples to bring to the @uconnextension Master Gardener training I was teaching at @bartlettarboretum on plant pathology. Swipe to see what I found! ⏩⏩⏩
.
. 1️⃣& 2️⃣:leaf spot on mountain laurel. The second photo shows the fungal fruiting bodies that can be seen inside the leadspots. The photo was taken with a really simple Aukey macro lens attachment on my phone. No app downloads necessary and available online for cheap.

3️⃣: These may look like strange galls on arborvitae, but they’re actually just cones! That’s where the seeds are produced.

4️⃣: Bracket fungi on a tree. When seen at this stage, the fungi have been hard at work on the tree for a while. This fruiting body is hard to the touch and usually can’t be knocked off by hand.

5️⃣: Insect damage on rhododendron. I’ll be bringing this sample back to the lab to try to identify the insect under a microscope.
.
.
.
.
#sick #plants #garden #gardening #plantbased #climatechange #plantparent #plantparenthood #mycology #plantpathology #ornamental #rose #rhododendron #mountainlaurel #hike #winter #fromwhereistand #mastergardener #aukey #aukeylens ...

Views from the last few days navigating southern California’s sick plants

1: powdery mildew on rose, 2: tree galls, 3 & 4: unknown disease on succulents, 5: scale insects on agave.
.
.
.
.
.
#sick #plants #california #agave #rose #treegalls #plantbased #plantsofinstagram #fungi #microbiology #plantpathology #entomology #garden #gardensofinstagram #danapoint #plantbaseddiet ...

Ferns are really incredible plants. They first appeared in the fossil record over 350 million years ago, and don’t produce any flowers or seeds. How do they reproduce and grow into new plants, you might ask? By spores!

I visited the @gpconservatory last week, and got the chance to see lots of species of ferns that were actively producing spores. Swipe through to see ⏩⏭ Last two photos are just for the beauty 🌿🍃✨.
.
.
.
.
.
.

#sick #plants #chicago #garfieldpark #garfieldparkconservatory #conservatory #wildlife #conservation #fern #ferns #indoorplants #indoorgarden #ferngarden #plants #plantbased #plantsofinstagram #science #spores #plantparenthood #plantparent #ornamental #plantcare #uconnimpact #uconncahnr #uconnextension ...

The second of the two sick peony plants 🤒🍂. Results are in! This is Alternaria leaf spot, caused by a species of Alternaria fungi. The fungus makes irregular brown to purplish patches on the leaves, which can cause leaves to wither and drop early. The fungus is spread by water and wind, so it is important to avoid sprinklers or other watering methods that get the leaves wet.
Alternaria spores are one of my favorites. They grow in chains on dead plant tissue and look amazing under the microscope. Swipe to see them up close and personal ⏩⏩
.
.
.
.
.
.
#sick #plants #peony #peonies #alternaria #mycology #fungi #fungus #plantsofinstagram #plantsofig #plantpathology #plantpathologynerd #gardening #landscaping #nursery #landscapes #plantdisease #gardens #science #microbiology #lab #plantparent #plantparenthood #perennial #perennialgarden #perennialgardening #flowers #cutflowers ...

Ambrosia beetles are so cool. They usually colonize stressed and dying trees by boring into trunks and leaving frass tubes (insect poop) in their wake as evidence. The beetles have a symbiotic relationship with many species of fungi, which are carried into the tree to be used as a food source.
As the fungi spread throughout the tree, they restrict the flow of water and nutrients which eventually can kill the tree.

Ambrosia beetles look quite large in these photos, but are actually really small. Scroll right for the size—quarter for scale! .
.
.
.
.
#ambrosia #beetles #beetlesofinstagram #entomology #insectsofinstagram #arthropod #labsofinstagram #lab #science #plantpathology #plantpathologynerd #plantsofig #oak #tree #forestry #forest #plantparenthood #gardening #landscape #landscapeplant #plantparent #creepy ...

This peony sample was a very sick plant 🤒🌿! This is anthracnose, caused by another fungus in the Colletotrichum genus. It causes cankers and lesions on all above ground parts of the plant and can eventually kill the peony if management strategies are not followed, like reducing leaf wetness and removing infected plants asap.

Scroll through to check out the awesome fruiting bodies that form in the cankers when environmental conditions are right. .
.
.
.

#sick #plants #peony #peonies #anthracnose #mycology #fungi #plantsofinstagram #plantsofig #plantpathology #plantpathologynerd #gardening #landscaping #landscapes #plantdisease #gardens #science #mycology #microbiology #lab #plantparent #plantparenthood #nursery #perennial #perennialgarden #perennialgardening #flowers ...

Have you ever felt a sticky substance on your house plant and seen some odd brown dots on the leaves and wondered what it was? Chances are it was scale.

Scale is a piercing/sucking insect that colonize hundreds of species of plants. They often show up on indoor plants and produce a sticky secretion called honeydew as they feed on plant sap. They can infest in quite high numbers if left unchecked, and I personally think they look a bit like aliens. Scroll through for some crazy closeups.

These scales were found on the beloved avocado tree named Chester of @nickbernaiche. To manage scale, spray a horticultural oil such as neem oil, or insecticidal soap on the leaves. You can also stab each with a pushpin and discard. Plants that are infested at very high numbers should be discarded.
#sick #plants #avocado #composting #fall #indoorplants #houseplants #houseplantsofinstagram #house #entomology #insectsofinstagram #honeydew #plantpathologynerd #plantsofig #plantparenthood #gardening #indoorgardening #indoorgarden ...

I went to an apple orchard last weekend, and found some incredible sick apples. This is bitter rot, a fungal disease that can be particularly devastating for apple orchards. The fungus is spread through fields by rain splash and wind-blown rain, and it can overwinter on fruit to infect next year’s crop too.

I am mesmerized by the concentric rings the fungus forms on the sunken, rotting lesion of the fruit. Scroll through for some close-ups. The last two photos are the spores of the fungus, both in tissue and free floating. Colletoctrichum spp. 🤒🌿
.
.
.
#sick #plants #apple #applepicking #appleorchard #fall #mycology #fungi #biology #science #lab #microbiology #plantpathology #plantpathologynerd #plantparenthood #plantparent #appletree #gardening #orchard #plantsofinstagram #plantsofig #plantdisease #rotten #organic ...