Rising Sun Eastern Redbud -colorless leaves - Ask Extension
My 2 year old Rising Sun Eastern Redbud tree has leaves on it that seem to be loosing their color and curling on the edges. Some leaves also show some...
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Rising Sun Eastern Redbud -colorless leaves #844844
Asked August 09, 2023, 4:42 AM EDT
My 2 year old Rising Sun Eastern Redbud tree has leaves on it that seem to be loosing their color and curling on the edges. Some leaves also show some damage from being eaten, but they seem to be two separate things happening. My concern is with the leaves that look more white in color.
Douglas County Nebraska
Expert Response
Hi Caty - Thank you for using Ask Extension. New cultivars of redbud trees offer some fantastic visual texture. However, we have been seeing them suffer from various issues from canker, unstable leaf color expression, winter kill, and herbicide sensitivity. To further help we would need to see some photographs the tree.
Hi Caty -
Thank you for the pictures. This helps. The cookie cutter cut outs on the leaf is from the leaf cutter bee. It is one of our tunnel nesting native bees. The damage is cosmetic and doesn't need to be managed.
The bleached out look... I am not 100% sure. The margin of the leaves are crinkled from herbicide damage. We typically see that on redbud since they are hyper sensitive. The bleached out look - I am not sure. I am leaning towards heat stress/sun burned but I want to ask some of my colleagues to see if they have any insight. It will probably be a few days before I have an answer for you on that.
Thank you for the pictures. This helps. The cookie cutter cut outs on the leaf is from the leaf cutter bee. It is one of our tunnel nesting native bees. The damage is cosmetic and doesn't need to be managed.
The bleached out look... I am not 100% sure. The margin of the leaves are crinkled from herbicide damage. We typically see that on redbud since they are hyper sensitive. The bleached out look - I am not sure. I am leaning towards heat stress/sun burned but I want to ask some of my colleagues to see if they have any insight. It will probably be a few days before I have an answer for you on that.
Thank you so much for your response! I am happy to provide additional pictures or even bring a small cutting in, if it will help.
Hi Caty -
I've been working with some fellow arborist and we all think this is similar to sunburn for plants. Since the leaves are supposed to be lime-green'ish it might not have the right pigmentation to tolerate the hot summer sun. As the tree matures there is a strong chance that it will be okay.
I've been working with some fellow arborist and we all think this is similar to sunburn for plants. Since the leaves are supposed to be lime-green'ish it might not have the right pigmentation to tolerate the hot summer sun. As the tree matures there is a strong chance that it will be okay.
Thank you for getting back to me! I do have one additional question; is there any type of fertilizer I should be giving this tree in the spring or fall? Just to be sure it's as healthy as possible?
Hi Caty - I was out of the office. No, we do not recommend any fertilizer for trees.
