Growths on Aspen tree branches - Ask Extension
There is a grove of Aspens on Snodgrass Mountain just NW of Mount Crested Butte that has thousands of these growths on their branches (see attached sn...
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Growths on Aspen tree branches #385811
Asked February 20, 2017, 11:59 AM EST
There is a grove of Aspens on Snodgrass Mountain just NW of Mount Crested Butte that has thousands of these growths on their branches (see attached snapshots). It appears they are external to the tree bark and don't seem to be causing any harm, but I'm curious as to what they might be.
Gunnison County Colorado
Expert Response
Sure, I'm thinking these are the bud scar remnants of eriophyid mites a couple or even three years ago. They make these galls for houses in the buds. No harm for sure. Hope this helps, Eric
That's interesting. Thanks for the quick answer. Although this particular group of trees had lots of them, they didn't seem to spread very far.
If you see them this summer, they'll look like a reddish green cauliflower-type swelling on the end of the branches.
Very helpful. I do recall seeing those kinds of things before and wondered what was causing them. Since these mites are so tiny I would have never noticed that they were without some kind of magnification.
thanks!
