I recently moved to a new house with a japanese red maple in the yard and I think it is struggling. I seems to be leaning but must have been like that for a while. All of the growth is on the side it is leaning towards, the leaning away side is sort of bare. I pruned the tree last year to remove dead branches except those I could not reach at the top. Pic 5 is from June 2025. Should I be concerned about the bark falling off and the black on the trunk in pics 3 & 4? Is it sun damage? MA zone 6b
by Bostonian625
1 Comment
The fact that it’s late April and the tree has still not leafed out is a sign that this tree is not only NOT OK, but it’s probably dead. The loss of bark is another sign of a dead tree. You can give it another week or two to see if it leafs out, but I believe this needs to be removed.