Our older oak tree has been dropping leaves the last two summers (we've only been in the home two summers, so we don't know how long the problem has existed.) It drops many completely brown leaves, as well as leaves which are mostly green but have a few larger brown spots, or leaves which have fine brown "rashes" all over them to varying degrees. The whole tree seems to be affected. The leaves are not creased or rolled. I have read your site's descriptions of both oak wilt and anthracnose, and our symptoms are more like the latter. How do I know if that's really what we have? We do not know what sub-type of oak we have. What should we do? Thanks so much!

Hi Chris, First knowing what oak it is helps since oak wilt is more common in the red group than the white group. Red group has points at the ends and whites have rounded lobes. I would also wonder if branches are actually dying (do all the branches leaf out in spring?) or is it just a leaf problem such as anthracnose. I would suggest taking a branch sample and pix to the UI Plant Clinic. Here is their info. http://plantclinic.cropsci.illinois.edu/ hope this helps. Sandy