Anyone know what this is? Damage from fungus or insects?

This started on the bottom-most leaves of my statice plants and seems to have spread to my calendula and some others. I applied some neem oil but not sure if this is fungal to caused by an insect? Any advice on what it might be / how to treat? Thanks!!

I got the same thing going on. Happens to salads of different kinds. I always asumed the leaves were old and the plant stops feeding them to concentrate it’s feedstream on the upper leafs. Sometimes, when i don’t remove them they form a natural mulch around the stem blocking out the sun. It never occured to me it could be a mold or insect. Maybe both things occur at the same time.

That looks more like insect damage than mold damage to me. Mold damage usually can be rubbed and some will come off onto your fingers, it will also usually spread from the starting point out. Black spot is one of the only ones that form individual points of infection, but even these will have fuzzy edges where the growth is occurring.