Here are bigger pics

Umm. Says pictures unavailable.

Sorry, but they show up on my computer!!

The first post says they are temporarily unavailable. The second, I get the dreaded red X so I can't see them either.

This is strange - I posted the three pictures which some of you say you can't see. Well, although I can see them in my posting here on my laptop I CAN'T see them on my desk top upsatirs. I also get "Unavailabe" on the first posting and that dreaded red "X" on the other posting. I followed the normal procedure for posting the pics. What am I doing wrong - any suggestions ???

I'm hazarding a guess in the dark. I worried about our Kousa'a health at just about the time in the tree's life. The bark was mottled. Come to find out, the maturing tree's bark does become patterned, and the bark appears cracked in "plates" This particular feature is normal. The bark has to expand somehow to accomodate the expanding girth of the trunk. Look at other mature trees- hardly any have perfectly smooth bark; something's got to give!

If it is normal bark exfoliating it will look like those in the link. Scroll down the left side to the pictures of the bark.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Woof

We started to see some bark problems with our Kousa last fall. The way the bark was splitting we thought it might be a dogwood borer. We sprayed it with the appropriate chemical but this year it looks worse. The bark is splitting in many places, from the bottom up, to the point where a chunk just falls off. The trunk is about 2.5 or 3" diameter, I think the tree has been planted for 5-6 years. I also could not see your pictures, but the link given above woof- does not look like our bark problem. The chunks of bark that have fallen off are 2" long and various widths. I'm going to keep searching online, I'll come back and post if I find out more or find pictures that match up with the problem.

After viewing several websites showing exfoliation of the bark, I am sure our bark problem is not exfoliation. Check the bark images on this link http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/moths/dogwood_borer_01.htm
It looks like our problem, so our issue is dogwood borers. June is the time the adults are out and looking to lay more eggs, so if you have the same problem, you want to get some chemicals and spray now. I just went out and sprayed ours, there is quite a bit of damage on one side of the trunk about 40% around with several knot like areas. Ours may be too far gone, but I'll keep after it this year and see what happens. Good luck with your problem, I hope it is not borers.