Dear Dr. Dirt: In the fencerow behind our house, there are some hackberry trees. Some of the leaves have developed marble-size balls. I am familiar with the nipple galls on hackberry leaves, but the ...

Question: The leaves on my hackberry tree have bumps. What can I do about this problem? Answer: Your tree has galls. Hackberries are great native trees that are tolerant of many temperature, soil ...

A student plopped a leaf on my desk, pointed to several green lumps on its underside, and asked, “What are those green growths?” It was a stump-the-professor moment, and in this case, I was indeed ...

The bumps on this hackberry leaf are galls caused by a native insect that result in little damage to the tree, making control or treatment unnecessary. The bumps on this hackberry leaf are galls ...

Answer: Your tree has galls. Hackberries are great native trees that are tolerant of many temperature, soil condition and moisture extremes. They have a few problems that are mostly cosmetic. The gall ...

Q: My hackberry’s leaves had thousands of the little galls you wrote about earlier this year. Should I not use those leaves in my compost? A: Use them. There are millions of galls to go around, and ...

I was standing at Pavilion 1 in Lancaster County Central Park one day early in June when a hackberry butterfly landed on my left arm. Immediately its long, straw-like mouth came out and I could feel ...

Bright red bumps on maple leaves, a hairy green growth on a rose branch, a spherical bulge in an oak twig: By the end of the summer, many strange shapes have appeared on trees, shrubs and other plants ...

With many trees and shrubs now bereft of leaves and flowers, more subtle aspects of the landscape come into focus. A tree that many people hardly notice captures my full attention — specifically, its ...

Each year in late spring and early summer, homeowners begin noticing strange growths on the leaves or stems and are concerned for the health of their trees. Several different types of galls are common ...

You’re admiring the stalwart limbs and sculpted leaves of your handsome oak tree, and suddenly you see them: warty bulges clustered along the branches like bunches of freaky grapes. There’s no need to ...