Quince rust

I agree entirely! We are building a wildlife habitat so I feel we have a responsibility towards the creatures we are attracting into it & I can't risk introducing anything into the food chain that might harm them. I'm hoping that eventually we will achieve some kind of equilibrium but until then like you I am hand weeding (or ignoring the weeds!) :) I will pick off diseased leaves & hope for the best!

You are most welcome! I am glad I was able to help. My nieces and nephews come over often and are always picking flowers and roaming through the gardens, plus with the koi ponds they are always catching frogs and whatever else they can, so I refuse to use any chemicals in here. It does mean a lot of weeding, and I do lose plants from time to time, but I would rather have that happen then have one of the kids get sick because I put something on the plants.

I certainly do! It's one of the trees we have planted in our 'bird garden' & is already a favorite with the mockingbirds. Thank you for the advice & the link!

Welcome any time Karen. :-D

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/hortanswers...

There is a nice article about it at that link. I would remove infected leaves to try to prevent further spreading, if you want to save the hawthorn. :-D

I love a challenge. :-D

Thanks Brandon! I started out listing this as a fungi but then decided it must be some kind of gall. Hopefully it won't become a problem as this is a recently planted tree & I garden organically so really don't want to have to spray it with a fungicide. :(

quince rust http://www.unl.edu/nac/diseasetrees/chap...

It generally infects fruits like apples and such, however, the hawthorn is highly succeptible to it. It infects both the fruit and leaves of the hawthorn. ;-) it's a fungi.

Thanks Marta! I will do some more digging around. I thought it looked kind of interesting!

Could also be galls caused by some animal larvae.Looks to me like some pupae.