Hackberry trees and sycamore trees are both commonly seen with witches' brooms. There are no treatments for any of the trees with witches' brooms. Since your tree only has a couple of affected ...

Diseases: Several fungi cause leaf spots on hackberry. The disease is worse during wet weather, but chemical controls are seldom needed. Witches broom is caused by a mite and powdery mildew.

The gall that deforms the leaf is called a hackberry nipple gall. It makes numerous bumps on the leaf but does no real damage. The more serious problem with hackberries is witches’-broom ...

Many hackberries have clumps of distorted twigs in their tops call witch’s brooms. The fruit of the hackberry are small hard black berries, which are favored by birds. The leaves of hackberry may be ...

While these differences don't particularly make it a better alternative to the hackberry ... it has greater resistance to diseases like witches broom do. The sugarberry makes a lovely shade ...

Hackberry is prone to a couple of diseases, notably nipple-gall on the leaves and witches' broom on branches and twigs. These afflictions cause some disfigurement, but not the death of the plant.

Witches' broom formations are seen in this Virginia pine. The effect of witches' broom is caused by stress in trees. (Submitted photo/Curtis Young) On my cranky days some might say it’s my mode ...