slime mold

Check out the latest edition of the OSU Turfgrass Team Times (TTT).

Last week, Pat Migliozzi (State Service Forester [extraordinaire], Ohio Department of Natural Resources) and I looked at an oak tree showing a most unusual symptom. The base of the tree looked like it had been dipped in white paint.

Slime molds can be found on all types of turfgrasses – from cultivars chosen for lawns to weedy grasses that pop up in places were regular maintenance just isn’t regular. Slime molds are usually more noticeable following extended periods of leaf wetness. With recent rains experienced in NW Ohio, people have been asking "what is going on in my lawn?"

  While walking about the other day I came upon a scene of serial sliming. A slime mold, probably a species of Mucilaga, was colonizing mulch under a maple tree. It was also colonizing a fallen maple leaf. It was also colonizing turfgrass plants next to the mulched area. This cohort of the colonized should tell us something: this slime mold is not very particular. It is not a parasite of this maple leaf or the turfgrass, but is just feeding on microbes in the decayed organic matter.  So no harm, no foul, relative to the need for controls. Just rake it or wash it off if it offends...