cedar apple rust / cedar hawthorne rust

these weird brain-looking things are cedar apple rust (or maybe cedar hawthorn rust).


they grow on the dwarf cedar tree in my backyard.


pulling them off means parts of the branches comes off too.


there was just a freaking TON of these things this spring


the rash i get from touching juniper or cedar or arborvitae. or pretty much any evergreen.


if i'd left them on thru spring they'd eventually start growing and look like this


the orange horns grow longer and longer and longer and are the spores of the fungus which affects both cedar and apple trees. if its cedar hawthorn rust, which looks kinda the same, it can affect pear trees. i dont want my pear trees infected.