Mystery White Flakes On Peony Leaves - SOLVED

[Dave2000]

I have some Peony, blooms already came and gone, cut off now. Suddenly I am seeing piles of white flakes sitting on some of the leaves. The piles are about a teaspoon each and very fluffy like snow, but it doesn't look to me like a molding of the leaf, rather a deposit of something, by "something". Very light, fluffy, dry, no consistent pattern except very small. They are not stuck to the leaves, they fall right off from wind or me shaking them into a jar.

The following picture /link shows them magnified quite a bit on a 1200 DPI scanner... linked picture is 1" square area of flakes for scale. I happened to get a dead insect in the picture but did not see any others around so it may just be coincidence, flakes may not be related to this insect. I have not noticed them on any other plants nearby, but I suppose it's possible no other plants have broad enough leaves that the flakes stay put.

What are these flakes?

 

[lesa]

Can't really tell from the pic. Are you sure they are not aphids? Are they on all the leaves? Someone will surely chime in- good luck!

 

[Dave2000]

You can click through to see a larger pic. They are definitely not insects, I mean at least the white flakes themselves aren't. I've dealt with aphids before and these aren't aphids. If there was a less uniform, larger size to the particles, or they were stuck to the leaves I might've thought it used to be a cocoon but from a distance it almost looks like some manufactured substance you wouldn't find naturally in a garden.

They are not on all the leaves, days will go by then all of a sudden I see a pile of the flakes sitting on only some leaves, not necessarily even leaves that are close to each other and none at all on adjacent leaves. In the picture they are scattered a bit but on the leaves they are a tidy little pile, not scattered on the leaf at all.


Well I just wrote days will go by but it might happen more often since they fall off so easily if something like wind were to move the leaves around a bit.

I collected a bunch of these flakes in a jar and am observing them over several days. They don't move around on their own and nothing interesting happened.

 

[patandchickens]

Hm. Not sure.

Some possibilities to ponder:

Mealybug? (Doesn't quite look like it to me, but, check closely in person)

Clumps of pollen or etc from an adjacent plant?

Some insects produce flaky waxy secretions, but I do not remember anymore exactly which ones -- look on plants that are more or less above or overhanging the peony, for small things like aphids or etc?

Small shavings from borers, carpenter bees, etc on higher/adjacent plants or trees (or, in my yard, it could be residue from something I was sawing out on the deck )?

Let us know if you figure it out!

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Dave2000]

Solved.

I figured it out after examining the plant again and noticing hollow stems. We've had some hot dry days recently, it seems that the stems which I'd cut the flowers off of, once their core completely drys out the middle dumps out like a pixie stick and if it's over a leaf, the leaf catches that. I never would have guessed it ended up looking like a neat pile of white fluff.