What are these sphere-like things on my Camellia azalea tree?

Question

There are about 3 of these sphere things on my Camellia azalea tree/shrub. Can anyone tell me what they are? Are they harmful?

Also, the leaves are browning at the tips and falling. Is that due to not enough water or too much?

Click on pictures for larger size.

Answer 1

Totally agree that they're fruits, or seed cases - were they Camellia Gall, they'd be protruding from the woody branches, not where flowers have been.

As for the browning, it might be something serious like a phytophthera infection, or it might well be that the plant is in a pot and may have run out of root room and needs a bigger pot, so I'd be checking what's going on with the root ball before fretting about a serious infection for which there is no really effective treatment anyway. Also, given this is a Camellia azalea, about which you have already asked a question, there isn't a huge amount of info about this particular plant (see my previous answer) other than the fact it does much better with sun exposure than the more common forms of Camellia.

Answer 2

They seem to me just fruits.

Here in South of Italy or in islands they often make fruits.

It could seem a parasitic fungus (Exobasidium rhododendri), known here as "afloat Rhododendron". click for fungus This parasitic fungus, however, is growing on the leaves, branches and any other part of the plant.

Your "balls" come right from flowers faded. So they seem really fruits.

The leaves seem suffering from Phytophthora ramorum see here Camellia symptoms are limited to leaf spots, which can vary in size from a half a centimeter in diameter to covering nearly half the leaf, depending on environmental conditions. Lesions are usually on the leaf tip or leaf edge, and can be surrounded by diffuse margins or thick black zone lines. Plants will drop their infected leaves, and the lower part of the plant can defoliate.

Then: less water, shadow, "few fertilizer" for acidophilic plants.