any idea what the big tree is ... sugar maple just started leaking in my MI last week ... where are you.. big city name ...

are you sure its black.. or is it just staining the bark??? .. try wiping some with a white klennex ...

if it were me.. i would taste it ...

do you know the dog is attracted to it ...???

ken

I did as you suggest and it is actually a dark ashen brown color, and it's a maple. I guess you're right it's probably sap! Ha ha, I'm new to having trees. False alarm....

Southewestern Ontario

=== btw.. do you mean across the river from detroit?

Looks like bacterial wetwoodto me.......although I can't say I've seen a case that was that pervasive.

Maple sap is also usually a clear, water-like fluid, and wouldn't wipe off as "dark ashen brown" unless it was on a muddy surface.

The tree is usually full of leaves and I hadn't noticed anything particularly unhealthy about it before now, except 15' up there's a hole developing, not too big yet, that I should probably patch. It appears that all that goop is dripping down from the main tree as it's also coated some of the branches/shrubs on the other side of the tree. My wife first brought this to my attention a few days ago when she said something was dripping from the main tree onto her head. Unfortunately there isn't a single attached leaf right now, and we have so many types of trees in the yard that I don't know which of the leaves on the ground belongs to it, so I will wait until some new leaves come out and follow up on this some more. I'm just glad I didn't taste it, that's for sure!

I agree with gardengal.... it sounds like wetwood. Especially if it's weeping out of a developing hole. Could you get a pic of that for us please?

And don’t patch the hole. That’ll just make things worse.