Signs a Tampa tree is dying, or about to become dangerous

Look up from underneath and from across the yard. Branches that did not leaf out this spring, bare gray limbs at the top of the tree, and a crown that has thinned more each year are the most common early signs of decline. Dieback that starts at the top and works down often points to a problem at the roots: compaction, construction damage, waterlogging or rot.

One dead branch on a big tree is normal and simply needs removing. A third of the crown dead is a different story, and a tree like that needs a proper look before the next storm season.

Shelf-like fungal bodies called conks, growing on the trunk or at the root flare, mean wood is decaying inside. In Tampa yards, Ganoderma is the one we see most, and live oaks with early Ganoderma at the base are among the first trees to fail in a storm. Mushrooms growing in a ring around the trunk after rain can also point to root decay.

Do not knock conks off; they are evidence, not the problem. The question is how much sound wood remains around the decay, which takes sounding the trunk and looking at the root flare to answer.

A vertical seam running down the trunk, a crack below a fork, or an open cavity where a limb once was are all places where the tree is weaker. Laurel oaks commonly start hollowing and breaking down around 40 to 60 years, and many Tampa neighborhoods were planted with them at the same time, so whole streets now carry old, hollowing trees.

A hollow alone does not doom a tree. Plenty of trees stand for decades with a cavity, as long as the shell of sound wood around it is thick enough. The combination to worry about is a big hollow, a heavy crown and something important underneath.

Many trees lean and stay put for decades. The warning sign is change: a lean that got worse after heavy rain, soil cracking or lifting on the side away from the lean, or roots newly exposed or snapped. Much of Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco sits on a high water table, and storm rain can saturate the soil until roots lose their grip and shear out under load.

A tree whose root plate is moving is one of the few true emergencies in tree care. Keep people and pets away from the side it leans toward and call right away.

Palms show decline differently. A crown turning bronze or yellow all over, rather than just on the oldest fronds, is serious, and in communities like Carrollwood and Town 'n' Country, sabal palms going bronze in the crown are one of the first problems we see. A spear leaf, the newest center frond, that wilts or pulls out easily means the bud is dying.

A crown that gets smaller every year, or a trunk narrowing to a pencil point, usually means the palm has been starved or over-pruned for a long time. Some of those palms recover with feeding; a palm with a dead bud does not.

If you have redbay or swamp bay trees, especially near water, watch for leaves that suddenly wilt and turn reddish brown while staying on the branch. That is the classic sign of laurel wilt, an incurable fungus carried by a tiny beetle that can kill a tree in as little as three weeks.

It is spreading through Tampa Bay, with roughly 200,000 trees at risk, mainly native swamp bays along the Hillsborough River floodplain and in the Brooker Creek, Alafia River and Little Manatee River watersheds. Despite the name, it does not affect laurel oaks. Dead bay trees should be removed and the wood kept on site, not moved as firewood.

If a tree shows one of these signs and nothing important is within reach of it, you usually have time to watch it through a season. If it shows two or more, or if it could reach the house, a driveway, a play area or a neighbor's roof, get it looked at before storm season.

A tree risk assessment gives you a straight answer: leave it, prune it, support it or take it down. Most trees people worry about turn out to need pruning, not removal.