What's the big deal with anthractnose anyway? Excuse my possible ignorance, but none in my area have ever died from it, if they ever had it. Has it actually ever killed a Sycamore?

Because it makes them look like cr@p. Doesn't usually kill them, but ruins their canopy for 50% or more of the growing season.

Around here, the telltale sign is only a few sparse leaves like this:

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poaky, sycamore anthracnose rarely kills, but when it repeats yr after yr the stem/twig damage becomes significant. It can stress even mature trees enough to slow the overall growth to a crawl. And makes the trees look miserable.

Fortunately it seems to skip yrs often enough to allow trees to recover, like this yr.

It's moderate here in the Baltimore-DC area, but seems mild to nonexistent both south as well as north of here this year.

This spring has been characterized by long dryish stretches separated by intense rainfall over a few days - resulting in a wet spring with many drier spells of weather.

We had that three-day deluge of rain in late April - I think south of here, the rain was less persistent and the leaves were more mature, so therefore the anthracnose got less of a foothold, and north of here, although they also had the rain, the leaves were less emerged so also unaffected.

Still, it's not as bad this year here as it was in 2013. Most wild trees have almost-full canopies already, whereas last year it was well into July if I remember right.

Although the damn sycamore lacebugs are already doing their work on the London Planes around here (which did not show any anthracnose worth mentioning this spring, whereas even they did in 2013).

As a side note, the anthracnose *does* appear particularly bad on oaks and maples this year.

A large sugar maple in my neighborhood has badly disfigured leaves (although no defoliation) from presubamly anthracnose on the lower half of the canopy, mostly on the shaded inner leaves, and I've seen it pretty bad on some oaks, too. No defoliation from the fungus, but some pretty disfigured leaves.

Interestingly, it's the *red* oaks that are more affected, the Q. albas and other white oaks seem less bothered by it, which is the opposite of conventional wisdom.

Hair, I mentioned in another reply that occasional very wet yrs (summer 2003) can allow various strains of anthracnose to infect just about any & every species' (even weeds) foliage & twigs, except conifers (those get needlecast instead).

I don't think I've ever seen it on any Sycamore before. I had put a sheet on a sycamore years ago for frost protection, and it looked like it had gotten Anthractnose from the moisture being kept in. The tree got borers and croaked a couple yrs ago. I have a London Plane now, so may never see anthractnose. I guess the local trees have likely had it before, and I never saw the effects. We have tons of them along the creek not far away. I like them better than the London plane, the whiter trunks show off the mottled areas better, and they just get huge vs the Lon Plane. I have seen what looks like anthractnose on 1 particular Q. Robur. All 3 of my Q. Robur are all different from each other. One is tall and skinny, one is wide and squat (the one with crappy stuff on leaves) and an other that is in between, but has chestnut oak looking leaves, and average shape, all acorns from the same tree in England, or so I was told by the Ebay seller.