On Saturday, April 24, 2004, this bizarre fungus - at least we think it's a fungus - was spotted covering part of this tree stump in the Lexington Cemetery. It's day-glo orange, pulpy with a gelatinous surface, and white foam congealed around the top. 
We did a quick Google search for "orange fungus" and didn't find anything that seemed to match the mystery muck. The closest thing we found to it was Cedar Apple Rust, a fungus that creates small (not enormous) orange growths on leaves (not stumps) on Cedar Apple trees (which this tree is not). 
Anyone out there have any identification of this strange and frightening goo?
ITS ECTOPLASM!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like some sort of "slime flux", a bacterial infection:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_flux
It is Cronartium fusiforme a fungus that causes a gooey slime to form.
ReplyDeleteI found this looking for info on the same thing. A block from my house, a tree fell during a storm last year. The stump is now covered in this stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe first day I saw it, it actually looked like someone had thrown up on the tree stump. Now it's solidifying into something orange that looks like your pics.