Pitch canker, a disease caused by a fungus, can be a serious problem in Florida and throughout the South. It sometimes causes major damage to plantations.

The fungus produces spores in small salmon-pink colored structures that are produced on infected shoots. The spores are carried by wind or insects to infect new trees. The spores enter hosts through wounds. A canker, a localized area of dead tissues, develops and large amounts of pitch begin to flow around the canker. The pathogen also incites resin-soaking of the xylem. It is from this characteristic of abundant production of resin (pitch) that the disease takes its name. The infection can slow the growth of the tree and deform it, but rarely does the tree die. Most infected trees survive but their stem form may be greatly changed.