A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 organish foam on mulch

I am not much of a gardener myself, but I am watering plants for someone this summer while they are in Europe. Twice I have found an orangish foam-like substance (though it's dry) on the mulch in one area of the yard. It is only in about a 1 foot square area (not all over). Is this a fungus? Should I do anything about it? Thanks!

It is a fungus and it's not a problem. You can remove it if you want but it's just part of the breaking down process of the mulch. I wouldn't worry about it.

Glad to see this...
My daughter has that on her mulch, and wanted me to find out what it was.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum, susanmwood.....

Your problem is called "slime mold" it is a pretty interesting species of fungi. It is actually a colony of individual microscopic entities, and they will move the entire colony to seek out new food sources. Kinda like the Blob.
It is very rare that slime molds to any damage, and they are just part of natures way of breaking down dead plant material.

Glad I came across this thread. A few years back, we were taking care of our son's yard and we came across what I now know was slime mold on the mulch around his newly planted pine trees. The one tree got brown on the one side. Do you think the mold had anything to do with it getting brown? Been wondering for years. Sue

I'm glad i came across this topic also; saw this same thing last year and this year around August in my mulch in a few places. I was going to start a new topic about it ;but don't need to now!