Other plants reported susceptible to this fungal disease include leucothoe, Japanese andromeda, blueberries, and cranberries. The fungus Exobasidium vaccinii infects young leaves, blossoms, and sometimes young twigs or shoots. Infected plant tissues typically become swollen and appear as fleshy, soft, irregularly shaped galls. In early spring, small, soft, swollen areas form on leaves, flower buds, and sometimes on new shoots. Typically, the developing leaf and shoot galls are green while blossom galls are the color of the normal blossoms.
Galls can be small, or they can develop into swellings an inch or more in diameter.
Whole leaves or parts of leaves may become galled. As azalea and camellia galls age, their surfaces become white with masses of spores. Galls of some other hosts may be white or pink. Later on in the spring or early summer, old galls turn brown, shrivel, and fall to the ground. On some susceptible rhododendron cultivars, infected leaves do not become galled but show yellow or creamy white spots that cover the leaf surface.