Spots on Palm leaf ethnographic basketry toys

[Maria Paula]

Hi, I'm currently studying some ethnographic basketry toys from Argentina, weaved from diffferent species of palm leaves. I've observed two different kinds of spots on some of them and since I'm by no means an expert I thought I might ask you about them. The first picture shows some dark spots that might be fungi, I was wondering if this looks like a palm disease that you are familiar with? It could be helpful to know if this was something already present in the plant material or if it was attacked after its manufacture. The second picture shows some reddish spots which are much flatter and irregular than the previous ones. I've observed this particularly on the more yellowed and deteriorated leaves (from at least two different species). Any help will be much appreciated since it could help me with the investigation (I'm sort of lost on where to look).

Photo 0046 species is Trithinax Biflavelata and 0009 is Copernicia Alba.

Thank you very much!

[richnorm]

The red ones might be insect excrement.  If so you may be able to pick or wash them off.  I agree the black looks like fungus.   I expect it formed after the leaf died.

[Maria Paula]

On 2017-6-18 02:00:39, richnorm said:

The red ones might be insect excrement.  If so you may be able to pick or wash them off.  I agree the black looks like fungus.   I expect it formed after the leaf died.

Thank you! they don't look like excrement, if anything it looks like some sort of stain (they don't protrude from the surface if that makes sense... and don't come off either, anyway) I'll keep looking thanks again!

[topwater]

I'm by no means a palm pathologist, but my best guess is the first pic is a post mortem fungal opportunist.  In other words,  I doubt it killed the frond, but grew after it was dead. The red lesions, I have no idea.