Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Prue’s Unidentified Anomoly

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In the year 2000 I posted an image on wikipedia of a growth that I found on a Ryparosa javanica hoping to get it identified.

Seven years older, but no wiser, I thought it worth giving it another shot.

I think it’s part of the growth of the tree. The stem looks similar, but it is not the normal fruiting body and with hundreds of trees to look at daily, I have not seen it again.

I am asking Neil, most humbly, if he will post my image on the blog, since I remain unempowered in the blogging process.

Ryparosa Growth.jpg

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. James Mayeau says

    It’s gawd awful isn’t it.
    You all are like botanists or something (I’m just
    guessing because you write about trees alot)?
    Is it possible for a tree to get cancer?
    To me this looks like a cancerous growth on a
    tree, or possibly some sort of over
    achieving fungus growth.

  2. Bruce says

    Hi Prue, A friend has alerted me to the recent Ryparosa news on this blog. I think what you have in your picture (although it is hard to tell from the small size) is a flower raceme (I would guess at a female raceme) infected by a virus. I have seen similar (but not as impressive!) racemes on R. kurrangii from the Daintree in the past. Such distorted reproductive tissue is quite common in plants from cultivated gardens. It is great news that you have not seen a similar example again – an indication that the virus is not persistent or spreading. I’ve been told the best way to control such an outbreak in a cultivated garden is to remove all infected tissue as quickly as possible. I hope that helps!

  4. Prue says

    Hi Bruce, Thanks for that info. I liked James’ answer too – cancerous growth. Interesting that I got better responses from Jennifer’s blog than from the Wiki 7 years ago. R. kurrangii has had a super flowering this year. It’s sickly pervasive aroma is fortunately waning. Reminds me of Friday’s classroom – old socks waiting for their weekly Sunday wash.