The disease is difficult to diagnose because some symptoms match those of stressed environmental conditions such as drought, flooding, or shallow soil.

[11] Some of these symptoms include progressive loss of vitality, subnormal growth, and leaves that fail to reach normal size and are often light green to chlorotic.

[12] Additional symptoms include branch dieback, cracks in the bark, early color change in the fall, and premature death of trees.

[10] Once inside the host, the Phytoplasma attacks the tree's vascular system, specifically targeting the phloem sieve tubes.

The geographic origin of ash yellows is unknown but currently the disease is only reported to be in North America.

[12] Some environmental factors that could contribute to the growth of the disease include mechanical damage, insect infestations, and fungi.

Some management strategies include promoting species diversity to reduce plant stress and limit competition among the ash trees.

[20] The reason that all of this is of importance is that wood from ash trees can be used to make a number of products including baseball bats and furniture.

[21] In addition to this ash trees also provide food and habitat to a number of animals including cardinals and wood ducks.

[2] Symptoms of the LWB Phytoplasma include witch's brooms, shortened internodes on new growth, twig dieback, overall loss of vitality and premature death.