In The Garden: What is this?

This is under my rose bushes:






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Does anyone know what these are?

Thank you for any help.
John

 

Probably slime molds.

 

Thanks for the response, Ron. Do you know if they will cause any harm to the roses? If so, how would I get rid of them? I have had these roses for over 30 years and have never had these molds.

John

 

No harm caused, and actually fairly good benefit accrued. The slime molds are decomposing the mulch, which helps the roses vis a vis greater nutrient availability. If you find them too gross to look at, you can scrape up the slime and put it in the compost, where it will continue its good work.

If that's relatively new mulch, it's likely that the spores came in with that, and recent wet weather has given them the opportunity to slime!