Thank you for your question.

I don’t think that any possible fungus in your yard is associated with this formation on your hackberry. We have been getting a fair number of questions so far this season dealing lawn fungus. We believe that this may be due to heavy, recent rainfalls.

The foliage on the tree is puzzling to me. By any chance do you still have the plant label that came attached to the tree? Lacking that, if you know where you purchased the tree, might you be able to contact them and see what kind of records they have regarding the lineage of the tree. Specifically ask if your hackberry is a hybrid plant.

Lastly, have you ever done any pruning of the tree? I am trying to decide if its current appearance came after some pruning events, or if it developed naturally. For how many years has it looked like this?

Looking forward to your responses. Thanks for using our forum.

Thanks for your response.

I suspect that the “warts” you observed both last year and this year are attributable to mites known as hackberry Psyllids (Pachypsylla celtidismamma). They will not harm your hackberry and they can simply be ignored. More specifically these “warts” are called leaf galls. They have mite larvae within them. The adults of these insects are extremely small and hard to detect. See the following for images of the galls and the adults:

https://bugguide.net/node/view/229821

https://bugguide.net/node/view/229829

Here’s the deal.  In spring 2023, adults of these insects emerged from places where they had overwintered during 2022-23. This could have been under pieces of bark or some other nook or cranny of the hackberry. These adults mated and females laid eggs on the leaves of your tree. Larvae quickly hatched. These larvae burrowed into the leaf tissue. The leaves responded by enclosing the larvae with a form of a leaf cancerous growth that is a type of defensive response. This led to the appearance of the bumps and nodules (galls) that you saw in 2023. These larvae developed into adults in late summer 2023. The adults went into hibernation for the winter 2023-24. When they emerged early this 2024 season, the process started all over again. See:

https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/garden-scoop/2019-07-25-hackberry-gall

https://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/hackberrypsyllids.shtml

Going back to the shape of the hackberry, how long have you been noticing this shape? Since it was planted? Both last year (2023) and this year (2024)? At this point, I am still formulating possible explanations.

Thanks again for consulting with us. I look forward to your response as to how many seasons the tree has looked like this.

Hi,

I am a bit puzzled by the picture you sent.  Also I did not see any information from you as to how long your tree has had this unusual shpe.

Thanks again for working with us.

Thanks for your latest response. Some things are starting to fall into place. If you could, I just need a bit more information.

1). Look at the two very last pictures you sent to us. I assume they were taken at different times. If so, what is the extent of this time difference? Approximately how many years?

2. I am attaching two pictures of the tree. In both pictures, look for the red arrows. In one of the pictures, the arrow is pointing to a bend or crook in the trunk. In the other picture, the arrow is pointing to the position on the trunk where there is a difference in the foliage shape of the tree. What I need to know is if the bend in the trunk in the one picture is where the tree’s shape changes in the other picture?

Looking forward to your response. Thanks so much for your patience in my answering your question, but I want to be sure that I provide you with as accurate an answer as possible.

Thanks for your response.  I am having difficulty in sending the pictures to you containing the arrows.  I hope to have things resolved by tomorrow.

Good morning.

Two images of your tree with arrows.  Please see the comments I sent to you yesterday regarding these pictures.

Thanks again for your patience in our responding.