by Mary Free and Christa Watters, Extension Master Gardeners
This post introduces the new word(s) added to our Illustrated Glossary. You may recognize some words as common gardening or botanical terms—although commonly used words are not necessarily commonly understood or their usage commonly agreed to. Other words may be more obscure, found mostly in flora guides and research papers. In any case we hope you find them interesting and even helpful in your gardening endeavors.
Left to right: Dead females in cottony egg sacs (maybe soft scale Pulvinaria innumerabilis—cottony maple leaf scale); honeydew development; Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae (crape-myrtle bark scale) and sooty mold on crape myrtle.
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The word scale may instill some dread in those of us who have overindulged in a meal or two, but to a gardener it may conjure up a sap-sucking insect and honeydew—no, not the melon—which promotes the growth of unsightly sooty mold on plants. To learn more about these terms, click here.