My beautiful brazilian pepper did the same thing and eventuallly died. I never learned what it was. Hope you find out.

Coincidentally, a huge multi-trunked ficus became ill and died, then on the other side of the yard the other huge ficus died. Then the brazilian. The arborist couldn't even tell me what took the ficus (es) when he took them out. "some kinda disease". I was underwhelmed.

Broke my heart to lose those amazing ficus.

I had a california pepper tree that died the same way. I have had numerous plants die in similar ways that seemed to be flourishing. The best conclusion I could come to is some sort of root rot that attacks deeper roots. Just yesterday had to remove a Persian lilac that was dying back limb by limb. I am horribly discouraged as just when the plants are doing very well, they start dying. Possibly cotton root rot.

They are a short-lived tree - usually listed as "up to 30-35 years".

I'd prune off that branch and start thinking about a replacement.

Update - so we're now one month later. The tree guy who normally cuts my trees each year suggested I spray the tree with a Bayer product (can't remember which, but we did this and even though it was outside, the spray fumes made us cough and almost vomit!).

I had a "tree doctor" come out and he said it was a combination of excessive heat (we did have two times this summer when we had several days of 115 degrees in a row); plus insects - he found a couple of large exit holes - see pics; and not enough water. Not sure about the excessive heat and not enough water comments as this tree has thrived over the past 28 years. (that said, Thanks to LazyGardens for the info on tree lifespan).

In any event, I paid him $220 to inject my two pepper trees with a growth stimulator, fungicide and fast-acting insecticide. Upon his advice, I also treated them with Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub concentrate around the base of the trees.

Injection sites

Tree 4 days after treatment. Die-back has stopped, tree has perked up. He suggested we wait until cooler weather to trim back the dead branches.

Please keep us posted on results.

What finally happened to your peper tree?

It died and I had it removed. My yard guy thought I have "verticillium wilt" in the soil along my back yard, as we've now lost 4 trees along the back wall. Trees susceptible die back branch by branch - which is what has happened with all four of the trees (acacia, jacaranda, Hong Kong Orchid and now this Pepper. We also lost a 4-trunk Pygmy Date palm, but supposedly palms are resistant, so who knows what happened there...

Sad...Ours just did the same...lost two Brazilian Peppers this summer and searching for what it could be. Looks like the same fate as yours.

I live in Phoenix and have had my Brazilian Pepper for about 15 years. It sits o the east facing side of our house and has always flourished. I had some burrowing beetle sometime ago, but got rid of them and saw no more holes. It has been over 115 degrees here for 2-3 weeks. I have lawn and so it gets watered every 2-3 days, plus I deep water about 1x per month. It's about 10' tall and blocks the sun from our front window. I sure hope I can save it. I just used a pressure nozzle and blew all the dead leaves out of the tree and saturated the trunk while doing it. I also watered with B1 plant food to treat for shock and hopefully bring it back. There are still shoots and some new branches from the trunk that I was grooming for new limbs that have green leaves remaining. I am hoping we can overcome this.

My questions: I know not to prune in the heat and never had, but is there anything else I can do to save my beautiful tree? At what temperature will it be safe to prune?

We lost our two Brazilian peppers and I thought it was because of the extreme heat but I took a photo and sent to Berridge Nurseries and was told we had verticillium wilt...so sad. She said that the fungus spore from a neighboring tree probably infected it. All of the Brazilian peppers in our neighborhood are dead. Ours was 16 years old. She said that if we wanted to plant another tree in its place we would have to treat the new tree with Monterey complete disease control to keep it disease free. So sad.

They are horribly invasive. Kill them all and plant something native.