Something is seriously "off" here but I don't know what it is!






I can take another pic of this funky little spiky cluster looking things if I need to. I know they are pretty blurry but if you have seen it before I bet you will know instantly anyway.

I am surprised no one replied anything .. Aphids , of some type I would guess ..

Thank you for taking a look. I have decided to cut it all the way back this winter and see what it does in the spring. I hope it doesn't kill it but it was looking pretty bad before it lost it's leaves so it really can't do much harm. I was thinking maybe some kind of gall which would have been from some type of aphid right?

I'm can't figure out what it is, but I don't see galls unless you're thinking of the distorted growth at the nodes? Galls aren't necessarily caused by aphids, could be gall midges, sawflies, mites etc. I looked at some pics on Google for willow galls and didn't see any that looked similar. Cutting back is certainly an option, and destroy the trimmings if you can. If it comes back next year maybe you can post some more pics?

I don't see galls either. If there is/was anything decent going back toward the base of the plant, I would not cut back completely, but only cut off the bad stuff. If you could leave some good nodes that would be more beneficial.

It could be a combination of several things. Sometimes when one thing hits - e.g. aphids, mites et cetera it makes the plant susceptible to other things - i.e. fungus.

That may be what happened here.

When you first saw this did you spray with anything? There are products that are triple cides and will treat insects, fungus etc.