I couldn't get the video to play, but I did a little research and came up with a few questions.

Have you had nights below 50 degrees for several hours? Is that area staying wetter than usual? Is there any way water from the pool has gotten onto the plant roots?

It looks like either cold burnback or root problems to me. You shouldn't really prune now, but if you need to to save the tree, it's justified. If you can, wait until February, though. Scrape the bark a far ways up on the trunks and see if there is still green underneath. If not, keep moving down, checking and prune the dying limbs off about three inches below where you find green.

It could be the roots have just grown into a sewer pipe. I had that happen to a cassina tree once, and it started dying on one side from the sewage water. Might want to check to see where the sewer lines runs. If you have a septic tank, and the roots grow into a drain field, it can damage them, especially if you use chemicals to keep the septic tank clear.

Have you put weed killer on your lawn recently? I don't think that would hurt it, but if it was already diseased, it may.

Is the bark split on the branches that are dying? Sometimes, if we get some really wet periods with dry periods in between, some trees with soft bark can have bark splitting that can cause this. I've had that happen to my brugmansias quite a few times.

You can take soil samples and have it tested for root rot fungus by your local extension service. It's pretty cheap.

If all else fails, and it keeps dying, I'd suggest cutting it back to about 3 feet tall and letting it come back out.

thank you. odd about the link to the video not working.

there is no splitting bark that i can see. there's some fungus on it of course but that's on all my trees ... mostly my palms.

to answer some of your questions:

• no, i don't have a septic tank.
• no, i don't think any pool water could have gotten to it.
• no, there's no sewage pipes in that part of my yard (just front).
• no, i haven't put any weed killer on the lawn lately - maybe a few months ago, and this never has affected it before though
• yes, we have had a few nights in the 40s for a few hours about 3 weeks ago (when this started happening) but hasn't happened for a couple weeks and it seems to still be dropping the leaves. but i think you may be on to something.

so if i cut this thing back to three feet it would be basically a stump... that would still be ok?

i'll wait until february to do anything drastic as you suggested

I can't imagine it's cold damage. All the ones in St. Petersburg are perfectly fine and they're super common here. They come up from seed everywhere.

St. Pete's temperatures are moderated by the water. I had more cold damage in North Port (20 miles inland) than I did in Bradenton (5 miles from the gulf) at the same temperatures. We don't know where Eric lives. In S. Central Florida, temps can affect plants differently then they do on the coasts.

Anyway, my first thought was cold damage, because the limb closest to the house seemed fine. Still, I'd do the scrape test and see just how far down the damage goes. Don't chop it down just yet. You'll probably just have to cut it back a bit, but those plants are tough. I cut a houseplant one back almost to the base once, and it came back out. As long as the base and roots are fine, it should come back easily, and they grow pretty quickly.

If it keeps dying, though, I'd test the soil and maybe dig around to see if the roots are rotting. Also, do you have a yard crew that uses a string trimmer around the base? Sometimes, they can girdle trees with those trimmers, and the trees then start to die.

I think schefflera is on the invasive species list. Probably let it die - or cut it down.

i know nothing about this plant.. nor FL ....

the only thing i can add .... is that you are not thinking in tree time ... things really dont happen in day or weeks .... you need to think in months.. years or decades ...

a cold event .. 3 weeks ago ... is real fast ... in tree time ... and could be the root cause of what you are seeing now ... most other issues would have evolved over a much longer time frame ....

i also see.. that the unaffected part.. is over the cement heat sink.. aka patio ... it is not uncommon that it could give enough heat overnight.. to 'save' the foliage above it .. in other words.. it was a borderline cold event ...

once again .. in tree time ...i would not over react.. and try to fix it too fast ... let it settle down.. and lets see what happens ... in tree time ...

it is not uncommon.. in my MI .... in spring.. for trees to leaf out.. and then get hit with a hard frost.. or even later freeze ... and the norm.. is for them to releaf ....

right now.. it is stressed .. fert is not a response.. imo ...

a call to your COUNTY extension office... might get you some info on whether there was a general cold event in the area ... or perhaps any other issues with said plant ... though it doesnt immediately help the plant .... it usually settles the owner down.. to know they are not alone ....

please do not over react ... what i call.. love it to death ....

ken

ps: if it was a cold event.. and odds are it will releaf.. then cutting parts off is an over reaction ....

I agree. I never prune burned back plants until they start to come out in the spring, just to see where (or if) new growth is going to start.

I think they're so beautiful and tropical looking when they get really big but they do self seed aggressively and are considered highly invasive in South Florida. The four large ones I had in my yard all came up as volunteers. They sprout in the worst of spots, grow and regenerate quickly. They can even grow epiphytically. There's one that looks really cool growing up high in the crown of a date palm a couple of blocks away from my house. It's sending down roots all the way to the ground.

When I lived in Venice, they were everywhere on the side of the roads from plants in people's yards. Strangely enough, my next door neighbor in North Port had one, but it never put out seedlings. I guess it was sort of like my Cassia bicapsularis that never has seeds.

Yeah or like my camphor tree that never puts out berries

Looks like root death to me. Is it possible you could be collecting water around that area below ground where you are not aware?

I had a large Avocado tree die suddenly on my property. It literally happened in a day. All the green leaves wilted and started falling off. Someone suggested I dig down a foot to see if there was water. I did and there was deep water below ground. The County's water line ran underneath the ground near the tree. It was leaking water. The tree died.

When you see sudden leaf wilting and loss, it is the roots. Dig down and see if something is going on. Possible pool leak?

Jane

Thanks everyone for their continued advice! It's truly appreciated as i do want to try and save this tree. It's a nice tree that does provide shade over that corner of my pool area and it's just a pretty tree in general (outside of dropping its berries all over the yard).

Just to answer a couple of questions here.

• I live in Coral Springs, FL which is about 10 miles inland from the south east coast of Florida
• There is no leak in my pool that i can tell

I think it's a good idea to dig and see what's going on with the roots. There are a couple roots above ground that have disrupted my rock border around the pool but they do look healthy. I have noticed very soft ground in that area so i'll take a look at that too as being possible over watering.

I trimmed the nearby bushes and also was able to trim off a couple of branches on this tree that seemed to just be a part of overgrowth. The branches looked healthy enough tho - they weren't dry rotted or anything. I've included a photo of the trimming i did on the nearby bushes and the current state of the tree itself.

I'm planning on leaving it be for the time being outside of poking at the yard and checking for root rot and over saturation.

All I know is what I experienced while living in the Upper Florida Keys for 15 yrs, back in the late 1980's to 2005. While there, living in my home in Islamorada, there occurred a big uproar concerning the Schelfflera trees that were growing there. One new waterfront development had a row of them 250 ft long as a close-in buffer from route 1. The roots were so invasive there, many shocking stories. One I recall concerned a nearby homeowner who looked into her 2nd floor toilet to see the tip of a root from the Scheffelera tree that was growing in the soil next to her outside wall. The extrication of the tree & roots was not a small job !

As I recall, all homeowners were advised not to plant this particular tree on their lot,...and it was adamantly emphasized that, if they do, - they not plant the tree adjacent to a home or pool.

Copied from an article in the Naples Daily News :

Schelfflera actinophylla, also known as Queensland Umbrella Tree, is one of those handsome trees with glossy leaves and pink stem-borne flower clusters in July that you wouldn't think twice about having in a layered landscape. But it's time to think this one over. This schefflera is invasive in Southwest Florida because the birds carry its seeds everywhere.
You could just cut the flower off to keep the seeds from ripening, but these guys get pretty tall, upwards of 40 feet, fast. What's even worse is that they have a juggernaut of a root system that's been known to crack concrete house and pool foundations.