Sudden Oak Death Fungus May Be Lurking In Your Shrubbery

Symptoms:

Camellia
Viburnum (Note: hole punches in leaves were made to remove leaf disks for analysis for Phytophthora ramorum the cause of Sudden Oak Death.)
Rhododendron

excerpt from NCSU Plant Pathology, please click for entire article:
(I added the bold for emphasis, below)

"Although Sudden Oak Death (SOD) is a forest disease, the organism that causes this disease is capable of infecting a large number of woody ornamental plants that are commonly sold by nurseries and planted into urban landscapes.

Background:

Despite the name, Sudden Oak Death disease is not just restricted to oaks.

Camellias, rhododendrons, Pieris, mountain laurel, viburnum, and lilacs are among 60 different plant hosts or potential carriers of the disease.

Only above ground plant parts are affected. The roots of infected plants remain healthy.

On oaks, the organism causes bleeding cankers on the trunk that can eventually girdle and kill the tree. On the majority of host plants, however, the disease causes leaf spots and twig dieback, but very rarely results in plant death.

Infected oak and tan oak trees in California forests are typically found in close proximity to other host plants such as bay laurel that have infected leaves. As such, it would be unusual to have an infected oak tree with a bleeding canker without the presence of other nearby foliar plant hosts such as mountain laurel or camellias. The disease is not known to spread from oak to oak."