Our 10+ year old Rose of Sharon has been doing great, but we've just noticed that the bark everywhere has tiny orange blobs (about 1mm). Another 8 year old, also healthy looking, on the opposite side of the house has them too. Last summer they had thousands of blooms and healthy leaves. Yesterday while pruning we noticed the blobs, but peeling away a bit of bark looks very healthy - no sign of infection or threads. Could this be a disease, or just harmless little fungi colonizing the surface? Should we let nature take its course until the year they stop flowering, or is it our duty to remove the trees and slow the spread?
The orange blobs look to me like Coral Spot. 118012-Nectria-cinnabarina coral-spot-nectria-canker In the 4th photo the small disc like structures are a type of Lichen. I don't know which but it would be harmless. The more important issue is the Coral Spot.
Thanks for the ID and links. I'm sorry to report that after 10 years the Hybiscus in front put out no leaves; the 8-year-old one in backyard is half dead - some branches got leaves and flowers (but much less dense than last year). I'll follow the pruning advice in those links.
