Article: A POX ON MAPLE TREES; FUNGUS PROBLEM CAUSES LEAVES TO FALL UNEXPECTEDLY IN CNY.(News)

Byline: Mark Weiner Staff writer

Maples trees across Central New York are acting like it's late fall, dropping leaves that have succumbed to one of the region's biggest tree fungus outbreaks in a decade, forestry experts say.

Tar spot disease, an ugly outbreak of raised black spots that looks like tar splattered on tree leaves, affects Norway, silver and red maples.

It's a chronic problem that peaked this year after an unusually cold and wet spring in Central New York. It gave the fungus an early start that spread rapidly. Now whole blocks of street trees in Syracuse and its suburbs are losing their leaves this summer.

"The last time ...

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