Thanks Pete - I'll pursue that possibility, and in a weird way it would be a good outcome
If it is, however, 'sabotage' - and there is reason to suspect it is - then my suspicion would not be a herbicide, but a caustic liquid such as acid or bleach (tho' no smell to suggest the latter).
The 'pattern' of the affected area - including the slightly damaged laurel (there's another one a bit further away with no marks at all) - adds to this.
I suspect if it was something caustic then at this stage the affected branch would still be alive, so that may tilt the balance of probabilities - at least the branch would likely recover tho
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The other possibility I'd flag up is honey fungus. Liriodendron tree's are on the RHS's very susceptible list and your tree looks a lot like @didyw 's viburnum tinus which has recently been diagnosed as being affected by HF.
I might have a tendency to think everything is down to HF though🤭 I have it in my garden and look out every day looking for the next victim...
Hope the RHS can help - do come back and let us know🙂
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Hi @PnD - sadly I do now know a bit about honey fungus having just lost a mature viburnum tinus to it. The way to find out is to dig down at the roots just under the soil line and scrape away the bark a little bit. If you see white flakes just under the bark which smells mushroomy then you have honey fungus and the whole tree will have to come out and disposed of away from the garden. If you have other susceptible shrubs or trees nearby it would be worth checking those too. HF works by sending out thin black rooty things that penetrate the roots of susceptible species. It will work its way through the root system and this could be taking place over a few years. The first you see of it is sudden death in all or part of the plant. Half of my virburnum looked like that, the other half had droopy but still green leaves so I at first thought it was a lack of watering. But it all had honey fungus. Grasses inc. bamboo are resistant to it, so they would be OK to plant in that spot. My tree surgeon told me that another client had to have some mature trees felled due to HF but had just planted a whole orchard nearby - and fruit trees are quite susceptible. But oak is resistant so the solution there was to plant a row of oaks as a barrier between where the HF was and the new orchard.
Agree, either VW or HF could cause this. Like several fellow members above, I also have HF and have lost a lot of woody plants, shrubs and trees over the years (the latest are two beautiful tree peonies.) The advice to scrape the bark back in a small area to see if a branch is still alive is sound. If you suspect Verticillum Wilt, then you can often see brown or black staining inside the wood, if you slice or saw through a branch (best done at an angle to expose as much wood as possible.)
Good luck though and in a way I hope it is vandalism rather than one of the aforementioned diseases!
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I might have a tendency to think everything is down to HF though🤭 I have it in my garden and look out every day looking for the next victim...
Hope the RHS can help - do come back and let us know🙂
It must be a rather uncomfortable situation for you atm
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.