longan with witches’ broom
After many years assuming the causative organism of longan witches’ broom was phytoplasma or a virus, researchers uncovered it was in fact a small white mite, Eriophyes dimocarpi. The mite’s saliva, toxic to the tree’s shoots, causes the curled, malformed leaves harkened in the witches’ broom name. (Photo credit: Naidu A. Rayapati)