In the year 2000 I posted an image on wikipedia of a growth that I found on a Ryparosa javanica hoping to get it identified.
Seven years older, but no wiser, I thought it worth giving it another shot.
I think it’s part of the growth of the tree. The stem looks similar, but it is not the normal fruiting body and with hundreds of trees to look at daily, I have not seen it again.
I am asking Neil, most humbly, if he will post my image on the blog, since I remain unempowered in the blogging process.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
It’s gawd awful isn’t it.
You all are like botanists or something (I’m just
guessing because you write about trees alot)?
Is it possible for a tree to get cancer?
To me this looks like a cancerous growth on a
tree, or possibly some sort of over
achieving fungus growth.
Hi Prue, A friend has alerted me to the recent Ryparosa news on this blog. I think what you have in your picture (although it is hard to tell from the small size) is a flower raceme (I would guess at a female raceme) infected by a virus. I have seen similar (but not as impressive!) racemes on R. kurrangii from the Daintree in the past. Such distorted reproductive tissue is quite common in plants from cultivated gardens. It is great news that you have not seen a similar example again – an indication that the virus is not persistent or spreading. I’ve been told the best way to control such an outbreak in a cultivated garden is to remove all infected tissue as quickly as possible. I hope that helps!
See the following website for some similar problems:
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/IPM.asp?code=194&group=67&level=c
Hi Bruce, Thanks for that info. I liked James’ answer too – cancerous growth. Interesting that I got better responses from Jennifer’s blog than from the Wiki 7 years ago. R. kurrangii has had a super flowering this year. It’s sickly pervasive aroma is fortunately waning. Reminds me of Friday’s classroom – old socks waiting for their weekly Sunday wash.