Mold Growth on Jap Maple?

[Keener]

Was just looking at a job here on the west coast and noticed a Jap maple with what looked like a mold growth which seemed to be coming from a fork just above soil level.
They had just put bark mulch around the tree and the mulch was imbedded throughout the "growth".
This would seem to indicate a fairly rapid bloom as the mulch was only a few weeks old.
The only similiar thing I have seen is mold blooms on damp chip piles (looks like barf).
Anyone have experience with anything like this?

 

[Dan F]

Sounds like yellow sponge mold. Harmless around here. Only lasts for a few days/a week or so.

Got any pic's to know for sure?


Dan

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

There is a common sprophyte know as "dog vomit fungus" which will get into mulch. lives solely on deadwood.

Here's a pic I pulled from the web..

Fulgio septica is in the Slime Mold family and loves damp chip piles.

 

[treeman218]

Nice pic JPS.

The cool thing about dog's vomit slime mold (as I understand it, actually in the Kingdom Protista, so it is not a fungus but a slime mold) is that the whole mass will actually move. I see it fairly often and it really does look like a dog's vomit.

Kind of off topic but most tree-folks that I know are afraid of fungus. Last week I found a bunch of chanterelles close to the base of some oak trees at the edge of the woods. The ISA certified arborist that I was working with assumed the worst, that the tree had some sort of root rot, however chanterelles are actually mycorrhizal. This guy has taught me so much about native wildflowers so I'm glad that I could share some information with him.

There is so much to know and also to understand.

 

[Keener]

Thanks for the input all, I think this is a different animal as it is not soft and squishy like dog barf but rather tough.
It takes some effort to tear open and the inside is white and fibrous.
I have seen the dog vomit slime molds but have never seen one move.
If it did I would be worried that it might attack me like some bad B movie.

 

[geofore]

dog vomit mold

It is more of an orange color when it is on the move. See it a lot around here in the mulch and in the roots of pine that were cut a year or so ago for pulp, stumps left in the ground the roots get it. One of natures ways of cleaning up wood chips, send a fungi out to eat it.