This was already pretty much like this when I first noticed it. It's growing on the pruned-limb face of a maple street tree, I think Acer pseudoplatanus. People are starting to notice it now - I talked to two passersby about it this morning, but I don't know anything about it. I wondered at first if something had been something thrown there, but now I think I see a new outcrop developing on another cut. 1. Is it a slime mold? Is it identifiable? 2. Should I be notifying the city?
Looks like slime flux - a collection of bacteria and other organisms, not slime mold though. There is also another term for this that is not coming to mind right now.
Thank you! That's a new term for me. I found this article informative: Why Does My Tree Ooze and Weep? You Might Have Slime Flux It sounds like it's evidence of infection, and trees deal with it themselves. The catch is that the trees should be watered in a drought, not have their roots walked on or their branches assaulted by trucks. That's not the life of this tree. Well, its crown spread has been curtailed quite a bit, so it's probably safe from trucks now.
The person who was looking at it when I approached posted it to a mushroom group and was told Fusicolla merismoides. I see that Mushroom Observer gives slime flux as a synonym of that. That would be a fungus. Is that the term you were thinking of? There are photos on that page.
Yes thank you that was the name I was thinking of - I get the impression that there are multiple organisms involved though, not just Fusicolla.
Yes, thanks, @Frog. On that site's slime mold page, they say "slime flux is indeed an assemblage of co-occurring organisms" and "I have made sure to propose at least Fusicolla merismoides on every observation of this phenomenon, and often other names for the other fungi involved. observations thereof are retrievable by navigating to the F. merismoides name page."
