Witch's Broom or something else (flowers, growing, Honeysuckle, trees)

[SunGrins]

Several plants in my yard have odd mutations that developed this past month or so. These are several different species including Desert Willow, Russian Sage, Chaste Tree, Honeysuckle, Trumpet Vine, and possibly my Mojave Sage. I live in the desert at 5300 ft. elevation and we are in a drought. The mutations seem to be associated with flower development and blooms are very sparse if at all. I'm sure the plants/trees are stressed from the drought and a couple weeks of hot temperatures but only up to 100.

I have two learned opinions -- one person says Witch's Broom and the other says a soil problem, possibly a poison. None of my potted plants have this problem making me think it is a soil issue. But, where would poison come from. I use some but not much and none where some of the sick plants are located. Would Witch's Broom spread to so many different trees and shrubs? Some trees have no mutations growing next to affected ones...same soil.

Has anyone experienced this?

[Zoisite]

I think you need to post pictures of the mutations. Some kinds of insects can cause mutations and so can intense UV from the sun.

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[luv4horses]

As you know, witches broom is often bacterial in origin. Meanwhile lots of abnormalities are caused by virus that are carried by sap sucking insects. Fewer flowers this year may be related hormonally to high flower and seed production last year. But as Zoisite wrote, pictures might provide suggestions.

[SunGrins]

Here are some pictures

Chaste Tree - those should be flower spikes similar to a Lilac



Desert Willow — these should be flowers — sort of like a pea


Russian Sage — mostly a tangle, few flowers


Early blooming trees and shrubs were not effected (Lilac, Photisia(?), Mountain Mahogany) and my Mexican Bird of Paradise blooming now is fine. My Mojave Sage seems to be effected on half of it.

[Zoisite]

It looks to me like witches broom but they are oddly leafy rather than twiggy which also suggests the possibility of apomixis. The fact that so many different species have been effected within the same time frame suggests to me a wind borne pathogen or insects that are carrying the pathogen (like mites for example) effecting drought stressed plants and causing witches broom. So I don't think it's any kind of poison in the soil doing that otherwise I'd think you should be seeing some effects on all the other plants too.

But it also looks like examples of some type of apomixis, a hormonal thing whereby very tiny plantlets are produced on a parent plant instead of flowers .... but I don't know if that would be caused by a specific pathogen or if it could occur at the same time on several different species of plants.

See this for explanation of apomixis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apomixis

and look at the picture of the Caribbean agave producing miniature plantlets on the old flower stem, to see the very close similarity with what's happening on your own plants. Yours are like tiny little 'Mini Me' leafy clones growing directly on the parent plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apomix...W_IMG_8660.jpg

They're such a cool looking curiosity that I'd personally be tempted to cut off some of the stems just below each plantlet and try to root the stems and plantlets in damp soil to see if they will grow independently into larger plants.

Can you tell if the bottoms of each plantlet has root buds on them? The root buds would look like small bumps, not roots, if they're on there. Kind of like the root bud bumps you'd see on the base of a garlic clove.

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[SunGrins]

After consultation with the extension service and examination at the university plant clinic it turns out to be herbicide poisoning. I used Ortho GroundClear on some pesky Russian Sage (root) volunteers after I removed the mother plant and the Imzapyr in the herbicide travelled through the sandy soil and caused the mutations. Not much can be done other than frequent watering and hopefully microbes in the soil will neutralize it. My soil is alkaline/sandy and not very supportive of microbes so I might have to add humus to the sandy soil to increase the microbes. Apparently under normal conditions the half-life of the Imazapyr is five months.

[Zoisite]

Thanks for the update. So then it actually is herbicide poison that has caused that. Very interesting that it would have that mutating effect of creating what appears to be plantlets on the adult plants. Good luck, I hope that extra watering and the addition of some enrichening humus now will prove to have been beneficial by next spring.

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[SunGrins]

I noticed that my lone Russian Sage that was mutating into a tangle of growth actually put out a couple flower spikes recently so maybe it is recovering -- or is on the far edge of the zone. It is hard to tell how far the chemical has spread.