Mystery Mould in My Mulch!

Tonight I arrived home to discover 2 strange looking moulds in the leaf mulch on west side of my property.

The mulch consists of leaves from Acer macrophylum, Aesculus hippocastrum and Quercus garryanna (all collected from my homes in my neighbourhood) and delivered in a one time 5 tonne load to my home.

The yellow mould (see picture) was about 1" thick and roughly 1 square foot in area. It extended about 6" deep into the mulch.

The red mould (see picture) was about 6" round and 1/2" thick - it did not extend into the mulch, it appeared to sit ontop of it.

Now, I don't expect anyone to actually name these speciemns .. can anyone tell me if I should be concerned?

Thanks,
Mike

 

Hi Mike,

I remember the first time I saw an orange one in my garden I felt queesy. They're called slime mold or even dog vomit mold and they're harmless. The second link has more pictures.
http://www.ppdl.org/dd/id/slime_molds-mulch.html
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/slime1.htm

Newt

 

Pretty colours, look a bit of an interesting shape,
I like the names!
Carol Ja

 

Very cool.

 

Hi. The yellow mould is -hold on to your breakfast- dog vomit slime! I had it last year. I think the cool wet summer made it flourish. I was under the impression I would never get rid of it-but have only had a 1 inch area of it this year in our balmy 90-100 degree summer. Last year I found some success when I just kept scooping it with garbage bags then pouring powder laundry soap on it after but with only a little bit of water. If you look up dog vomit slime on the internet you will here stories of how water will make it take over your lawn. Pretty scary-but I've overcome it with little effort and hot weather.

 

Wow - thanks for the great links!

Slime mould and dog-vomit ... appropriately named!

Mystery solved - thanks all.

- Mike

 

Mike, you're very welcome!

Newt