Hm that's curious to see bees on your brug blooms, Becky. They are pollinated in their native areas by night-flying moths. That's why the fragrance is only present at night.
Here's something else that's a bit odd about the trunk rot situation. On both yours and mine it is a big, old trunk that has split and developed the rusty growth. Yet, in the same pot as the rotten trunk on mine are two smaller, but still fairly large newer stems. No signs of splitting or rusty spots at all. They look perfectly normal. If it were a fungal disease, you'd think all the stems would be infected.
I wonder if it's a situation that happens to old trunks in hot, humid and then very wet weather? In Hawaii they grow to be 20ft. specimen size trees. But it never gets as hot in Hawaii as it does here. Also did you see the pictures of the huge ones in Golden Gate Park? Again, never gets hot there. Hmm.
What I'm thinking is that the older trunks are harder than the young ones, and have split from sudden abundance of water. When they split, then the wounds are open to infection from the air by whatever's floating by.
