Coral spot spotted

While pruning the roses this week, we noticed some tiny red 'pimples' on some of the dead wood we were pruning out. This is coral spot, a fungus which mainly attacks dead parts of woody plants, but may spread to live wood if not pruned out.

The correct name is Nectria cinnabarina. This lovely name observes the fact that the final colour of the mature pustules (not such a nice word) is cinnibar red.

I often see it, not just on dead wood, but old twiggy plant supports, the trellis obilisks our roses are grown against and wooden fences.

So whenever it is spotted, we prune the branch, to prevent it spreading - and the chances are the branch is already dead.