Katkin

The Tab and the Erythrina both suffer from insect damage, not a fungal smut. I forget which insect (or mite) is involved but I think they are two different critters, one for the Sunshine and one for the Tab. They attack the young not fully formed leaf. Onced damaged, the leaf enlarges but is malformed. Usually, the Bayers product works if it is used in large enough quantities, but it will not return malformed leaves to a normal appearance. The Bayers systemic will most likely make the next flush of leaves look good. I don't know what the label states as to mixing rates and re-apply intervals, but the commercial version has worked on other plants (cycads with scale) for up to 6 months when applied at very high levels. You might try a shot of fert to encourage new growth if there is enough systemic in the plant.

The long term solution is biological controls, or a predatory mite or insect. Sometimes it takes years for the predators we already have to develop a "taste" for new pests. Sometimes a new predator needs to be researched and introduced by entomologists.

Jerry

Hi Jerry,
Thanks for your reply, but I don't think that was it. The adult leaves started with wart like bumps and continued to gather up until it was a notted lump. The new growth was deformed as it emerged so it didn't seem like the Bayers Systemic worked that we applied 4 weeks ago. We followed the directions on the bottle when I we applied it.
A local nursery has it on their trees and said they have been growing the erythrina for 20 years and never saw this before. The pink tab leaves seemed to be doing the same thing, the adult leaves getting these wart like growths. We didn't wait for the out come on the tab but began cutting them off. Can I treat it again with the Bayers Systimic? I didn't want to over dose the tree. I have cut off every leaf of the erythrina.

After doing some research I see my problem looks a lot like what is called common smut. What can I use on the trees? My pink tab is older and never had this before and it about 10 ft away from the sunshine tree.

http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/apr252006/1061.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: Gall Wasp

Ok, Jerry, I think that is what the sunshine tree has, gall wasp!!! Thank you. But the Bayers Systemic didn't work on it. Maybe we waited too long to treat it. The tab seems to have those warts too and the leaves were getting all knotted up as well. But you think it was a totally different bug? The pink tab was fine until the sunshine tree got these bugs.
Thank you again for the info and help. ;o)