Is it growing on live ones or just stumps? If just stumps its only nature's decomposers.

tj

It is growing on 5 of the 7 pines we have in our front yard. It is not on the 3 hardwoods. All of the trees are in the same island.

Looks like a slime mold, to me.

dhph, I see something somewhat similar on wild, native Thuja occidentalis up at my land. A white sheet of what looks like a fungal thallus, but the trees are utterly healthy and not bothered in the least. I hope this is the case here as well, although I don't have much to add in the way of ID. I wrote in to the local DNR forest health specialist about my situation one time, but although this person is exp[experienced and knowledgeable, she had no answer for me. So in my case, I think it's just one of the local fungal soil partners, perhaps even a micorrhizal associate of the Thuja, but there too, I have no proof. Would you mind keeping us updated on this please? I'd like to know what-if anything-comes of it. And to my eyes, this is dissimilar to slime molds I've seen forever. And those are harmless, should it turn out to be that.

edited to add: OK, I should have said-"dissimilar to most slime molds I've seen....". Rhizo makes a good point, in that while most actively growing slime molds are tan to orangish to almost a yellow, they can become bleached-looking like this at a later stage. Still methinks this to be something else, but exactly what-as my earlier post indicates-I'm not sure.

Slime mold fun facts: They are not fungi. And the funnest fact? They move, albeit very slowly. I know of no negative issues associated with slime molds. IE, they don't kill plants, they are not "poisonous" as that term gets used. The only recommendation I'd make is that when mature, they release clouds of spores, in particular, if one applies water to them. It's probably best not to breath in a lot of these spores.

I found what appears to be the same growing on the ground on the southern side of a very old hickory tree next to a 150 year old grave. It is growing in a spot that gets very little light. It appeared after two weeks of very wet weather with temperatures from 28-45farenheit.

welcome to the forums mike ...

are you asking a question ???

if so.. you might want to start your own post ... add big city location ... and add pix ...

ken