Deirdre's Garden Diary

:: Slime Mold ::

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

:: 05.25.05 ::

I get up early to take my morning walk through the garden and see what is going on...and at the bottom of one of my small trees I spot THIS...

...and I am like...eeeewwww!! What is THAT??!!!

So I am trying not to freak out because I know this can't be good right? Right? This is bad. I am thinking this is VERY bad!

Ok, so it is kind of foamy looking and grainy, like Cream-of-Wheat... and this fungus stuff is on the ground around it too...and in small patches on the ground close by. I hurried and took a photo before I had to go to work, but I didn't scrape it off or anything because I didn't want to "spread" it or touch it until I knew exactly what to do to get rid of it! Later I thought, I should have poked at it to see if it was wet or flaky or whatever...so I thought, ok I will do that as soon as I get back home...

So later in the evening, this same day...today!
I get back, and it looks like THIS...

I am like... oh my friggin' god this is from the deepest bowels of Hades. It is morphing! It seems to have solidified and was spotty and started to turn brownish on the outside. So I grabbed a stick and poked at it and scraped some of it off to see what the inside looked like, and it looked like THIS...

It is all black and powdery inside, like one of those marshmallow snack desserts you buy, those "pink balls", and they are all cake-y in the center covered in marshmallow and coconut...ick ...I never liked those...and I like it even less when something in my garden looks like that!

What IS THIS!? It's BAD right?! Is it going to spread and kill the tree? How do I get rid of it? Is it from an insect or is it a fungus, or space alien pod droppings or what !!!!!!????????????

Yikes! Help!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UPDATE::

After finding this mold around my tree I called some local experts at the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab through my Cooperative Extension to see if I could get more information on what it could be and if it was something harmful.

Good News! It is just a form of slime mold called Fuligo Septica ...but it has a common name… are you ready for it?

Ok, here it comes . . .

“Dog Vomit Slime” - Gross! Eeewwwwww!!!!!

Ok, it is also called, “Flowers of Tan” and “Scrambled Egg Mold” but I prefer to tell everyone I have “dog vomit slime” because the look on their faces is the only fun I am getting out of this whole thing!

It has an amoeba like movement and can relocate itself by “crawling” across surfaces. It usually shows up around decaying wood (I have wood chip mulch around the bottom of the tree) and in soils that are heavily manured. It doesn’t penetrate the host plants, only stays on top of the surface, so the tree should be ok.

The guy said to scrape off as much of it as I can, maybe remove the woodchips and some of the top soil around the area then squirt everything down with a solution of bleach and water (funny thing...that is what my mom said to do...when in doubt, BLEACH IT OUT!...aren't moms great!).

Since it is a small area and I am catching it pretty early he thinks everything will be ok. It is a fairly common fungus…just has a gross, scary look. I cleared it all out this morning. Now I just have to keep my eyes peeled on the area to see if any of it returns so I can make sure it is under control.

I am feeling much better about it now. Here is a site with some lovely pictures of this mold (scroll down) and others (!) that are common… *warning* - Don’t look at this if you are having breakfast or lunch at your PC! (yes, sadly... I am speaking from experience).

It’s kinda’ icky…but interesting in a cool scientific kind of way.

:: Go to the main Garden Diary and Plant Index ::