Dr. Phyto

cedar of Lebanon

Cedrus libani

Diseases & pests on this plant

• cedar aphidCinara cedri

  Fairly large (about 2.5-4 mm) dark bronze to reddish-brown aphids, dusted with a variable pattern of white wax, cluster in dense compact colonies on the BARK of the trunk, branches and twigs (this is the cedar BARK aphid, not a needle-feeder); they produce copious sticky honeydew that coats the foliage and everything beneath the tree, on which black sooty mould then grows. Feeding on the shoots makes needles redden, dry out and drop, and heavy attacks can partly defoliate young trees. Dark waxy aphids on the bark plus sticky, blackened foliage are characteristic.

• Phytophthora root + crown rotPhytophthora cinnamomi

  Sudden wilting + collapse of mature trees during summer heat stress, dark sunken cankers at base of trunk often oozing dark sap, root system rotted away to small white feeder roots only, gradual general decline + sparse foliage 1-3 years before final collapse, characteristic V-shaped soil-line lesion when bark peeled back.

• drought stressabiotic_drought_stress

  Wilting leaves that don't recover by morning, leaf edges browning and curling, drop of older leaves, flowering halts, slow recovery only after deep watering.