What's going wrong here?

This Schefflera has been in the same spot in an east bathroom window since the fall. It has been growing fine (and recovering from a former owner's abuse) and producing nice dark green leaves. All of a sudden, with absolutely no changes in care (no new soil, no change in location/humidity/watering patterns) light green leaves are popping out and this one, in particular, was riddled with brown spots.

I checked for aphids and mealy bugs and can see neither.

This plant is near my newly purchased orchids, too, so I don't want something going from the Schefflera to the Orchids. (The bad leaves are older than the new orchids. ;)

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here?

Thx.

Those spots almost look viral...can you get a good closeup of the spots themselves????

Okay, this is the best I could do with my little digital camera. First on is the top of the leaf.

Bottom of the same leaf.

And here's something starting on another leaf that just looks clear...

And here's what's going on under that leaf...

Yikes! It really looks more viral than fungal...you could try the old aspirin trick which is on another thread that I will have to find. You might want to send these photo to PalmBob, he's an Uber Gardener and knows just about everything! Let me try and find the aspirin method, if its viral, that will likely help....

Does something viral just appear out of nowhere?? Thx for the help.

Yes, it can, just like in people...here is the article if I can get it to load... click this link, and read the article.....
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/730

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/730/

Thanks, Morrigan, for finding that info for me. I'll give it a try.

Ooo! Please post the aspirin trick! :) There is a method for ridding of some things, not sure it will work but it's a thought. You mix cinnamon with rubbing alcohol, let it sit over night, then strain and spray on the foliage. It needs to be repeated much like fighting critters. Approx. 1tbsp cinnamon to 1/4c alcohol. I have no idea if that will help this but it has helped me with crown rot in the past believe it or not. :) Sometimes you will try anything just to see!

Aspirin's not going to do anything against a virus--you can't typically treat them with chemicals. You can try to keep plants from getting them by good cultural practices, quarantining infected plants, planting resistant varieties, and controlling the insects that can transmit the virus, but once a plant has a virus there's not really much you can do.
http://www.dpvweb.net/intro/index.php
http://www.ehow.com/how_4457419_control-plant-viruses.html
http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/pdc/Inclusionpage/aboutv.html

Scheffleras are susceptible to a ringspot virus that can be transmitted by mealybugs--I wasn't able to find any pictures of it so I don't know if that's what you have or not.

I would definitely think whatever this plant has looks like something called "ringspot" but the problem is it doesn't have mealy bugs. I do know what mealy bugs are, how to spot them but this plant has never had them, nor has anything else in my house since this plant has been here, so it may sound like it could be ringspot but I'm not sure how it would have gotten there.

I ended up removing the bad leaves for cosmetic reasons if nothing else. I considered that it might just be moisture damage from being in a bathroom all winter. I'm waiting to see if the new leaves show similar problems. If they do, I'll chuck the plant. It was a rescue and after thinking it over and considering that what it has might spread among my other plants, I'm not planning on spending any more time or energy saving it.

Thanks for all the help. If any future readers recognize the problem, please feel free to comment. Even though the plant may not be with us anymore, I'd still like to know what it was.

looks a lot like the pictures of edema in my books.

db

I have been watching this because I have seen this but had no idea what it was. So thank you to dvdbwn I believe you've solved it! Check this out...

http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/index.html#http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/edema.html

It's very possible that this is what it was. I simply removed the effected leaves and nothing has come back so it wasn't bugs or a virus.

Thx!