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I have a Magnolia champaca plant, also known as 'Son champa' in India.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_champaca

Recently a few of its leaves contained some very tiny (about 0.5-1 mm in diameter approximately) purple colored jelly kind of stuff.

It very closely resembled a turtle's hump. The slightly bigger ones had some very light purple and yellow colored uniform patterns with an even purple background. The smaller ones however were uniformly purple colored.

I am not sure if they were eggs or pests, they were leaving behind a dry dark brown bubble (holes in some cases) in the leaves they were hosted on.

I plucked off the affected leaves.

Does anybody have any idea what that was and how I can protect my plant?

Pictures:

Bugs have resurfaced

After @Bamboo's answer I looked up for details about the Mangolia Scales and found the exact picture of bug + impact, adding it below, also found this site very useful - http://nassau.ifas.ufl.edu/horticulture/gardentalk/disease.html

enter image description here

VividD
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mbaxi
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    Pictures please – kevinskio Dec 16 '15 at 15:01
  • I will try and post the picture in a day or two – mbaxi Dec 16 '15 at 15:43
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    Hi mbaxi. Now that you've plucked off those leaves, are you seeing any signs of it returning, or does everything look fine? When you do post pictures, would you kindly include not just the plant but also the soil? Thanks! – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Dec 16 '15 at 17:34
  • Sure I will, right now there are no signs of returning, I am keeping a watch, if I spot them again I will post the pictures. I am pretty new to gardening what attributes define soil and how can I identify those? – mbaxi Dec 17 '15 at 07:03
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    @mbaxi ask that as another question. But search the questions first because that question or one very like it has bound to have been asked. – Escoce Dec 17 '15 at 14:22
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    I'm glad things are going well for the moment! As you probably know, tag searches are a good way to learn, and to see if your question's been asked. I suggest checking out our questions and answers about [tag:soil]. If you need more information, please don't hesitate to ask a new question! – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Dec 18 '15 at 02:29
  • @Sue kevinsky - The bugs have resurfaced, my camera couldn't capture their pattern as I have described in the question....but it should give you some idea...please see if you can help me out ...the bugs turn purple in direct sunlight....and pale green in shade – mbaxi Jan 09 '16 at 11:46

1 Answers1

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Check the woody parts of the plant and underside of the leaves. It would have been useful to know what part of the world you're in, but I'm suspecting Magnolia Scale, which does look different depending which stage of growth the scales are in. Usually, you'll find brown to purplish scales with white cottony stuff exuding around them under the leaves and possibly on the woody parts, often clustered together, but again, that varies on the time of year. In a heavy infestation during late spring and summer, you'd expect sooty mould to develop too. More info in the links below

http://idl.entomology.cornell.edu/files/2013/11/Magnolia-Scale-1191hjl.pdf

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef431.asp

Bamboo
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  • Thank you @Bamboo ...you nailed it right, its a fig wax scale, I found little more details and exact picture here - http://nassau.ifas.ufl.edu/horticulture/gardentalk/disease.html – mbaxi Jan 09 '16 at 15:39