i didn't get the orange stuff, but mine eventually went away on its own. it seems all the heat after such moisture levels brought mine out, just as with yours.

Slime mold, aka dog-vomit fungus is a harmless curiosity, designed by Ma Nature to get an immediate panic reaction out of gardeners the first time they see it. Never fails, even when she planted it in my garden. I can still hear her giggling.

I tossed mine into the brush when I got tired of seeing it.

Wayne

I have the same in various spots on my mulch.
I found this link that explains some of what we see.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slime mold

Thank you all for the information and link and reassurance. [g] It makes sense..the wet started the fungus and the heat made it explode into growth I guess. Like a plastic bag of wonder bread left on the counter in summer for a week..lol. Or something like that.

Thanks :-)

Slime mold appears when conditions are right and it is harmless, and since it is harless there is no reason to do any more than just rake the mulch it appears on enough to work it in, or even spray it into the mulch. Many people for unknown reasons will pick it up with a shovel and toss it away, a total waste of material.

Kim...So are you saying having the mold on top of the mulch is beneficial in some way? Or are you saying that throwing away a shovelful of mulch is a waste?

We are just talking about the slime mold right? Because that bright orange one has now turned a horrible brown and gotten sort of foamy and spread further. Are all these surface fungus harmless or are there some that aren't?

There were folks on the soil forum looking for cultures of the stuff because they were so fascinated.

Less than harmless- they're breaking down your mulch into yummy compost.

Oh, yes....there is some real 'dog vomit fungus envy' going on in the Soil forum, lol.

Thank you all again and I guess I will have to head over to the soil forum and see what the story is.

[g]

I was about to pack some up and send it to gonefishin

>I was about to pack some up and send it to gonefishin

I was gonna send my dog over.

Wayne

What kind of mulch is it? The bright orange stuff could be bad, I'm not sure though, could theoretically be more than one type of grainular looking flourescent orange fungus in the nw quarter of the north american continent, Here in anchorage ak there is a bright orange fungus that shows up on cherries and roses, I have never seen the orange fruiting bodys (a bit larger than grains of salt) on live cherries, but I have seen them for large knobs on live wild roses, I'll try and find one and snap a picture later.

Hi brendan..

No, my mulch is just plain old pine bark mulch. I wish I had a camera to take a photo, but our camera was stolen last weekend. :-( That orange fungus has turned a very dark brown now and looks like someone sprayed brown shaving cream on the ground.

I too have also had that orange (shaving cream like ) fungus growing in my mulch. We have used this mulch in all of our gardening areas but it only seems to be sprouting in one of the beds. I am wondering what kind of mold this is and if it is harmless. Once the mold turns from orange to brown it breaks apart into dust when I water it. Wondering if that dust is harmful to myself or my pets.