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Organic Gardening

Creepy yellow fungus

17 years ago

OK, so I just got back from a quick midnight garden inspection and had found this creepy looking yellow fungus (at least, I *think* that's what it is) growing on the soil next to one of my cannas. It's a really intense shade of of yellow and when scraped off, has the consistency of undiluted watercolour. Is it something I should be concerned about or just a helpful friend from the Soil Food Web?

Will try to post a picture tomorrow; a little too lazy to drag my notebook all the way out to snap a shot :P

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Comments (5)

pablo_nh
17 years ago
Probably a dog-vomit type fungus. There's very little chance that it will harm your plants (just don't eat it).

Fungi make the nutrient in soil organic matter and in mulch available.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
It does sound like one of the many 'creatures' we refer to as slime molds. Not a mold or fungi, at all, they are not decomposers (as was once thought) but probably feed off dead organic matter they happen to come across. Slime 'molds' can grow on concrete.

Though not a beneficial organism, slime molds are not harmful either, and should be considered something of interest. A picture would be fun! You'll probably discover that it looks different, however, when you go outside to capture it on camera!
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enoughcliches
Original Author
17 years ago
sigh....went back out this morning, and it had already dried up. Just a mass of weird brown spots now :(

Will keep up my hopes of catching it again, or perhaps something of a different colour, hmmmmm....
steveandjoy
17 years ago
I am so glad I found this post. When we first saw slime mold in our garden, we thought that the cats in the neighbourhood had eaten something terrible and spat it out on our lawn. Then we realised that it had a dense yellow cotton candy effect and when poked with a stick, emitted a powdery substance. After noticing this, we thought we had some dreadful problem on our hands. By seeing this post, I did a quick check in online on slime mold and found pics of the culprit.
Kimmsr
17 years ago
Yup, slime mold commonly known as Dog Vomit Fungus. No need to do anything unless the look is realy repulsive and then you could wash it away or rake it in to the mulch.

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