17 May 2010

Orange slime balls

The other day I noticed this strange orange slimey blobs on a juniper:

Kinda gross, but kinda cool at the same time.

Turns out it is Cedar Apple Rust -- a fungal disease that can grow on apples, hawthorns, and junipers. On the apples and hawthorns, it can cause serious damage, but doesn't do much more than look funky on junipers. More info here from Kansas state university.

6 comments:

Mary C. said...

EW!!! get it off get it off! :9

Thomas said...

I concur, EwwwwWWW.

Does it have a smell? Did you touch it?

danger garden said...

I was going to ask exactly what Thomas did!....so....

Joseph said...

It didn't smell, and I didn't touch it. It looked awfully wet and sticky, and I was afraid I'd have orange gooey fingers.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

This orange fungus corpse tastes terrible!

Joseph said...

But oh those yummy lichen corpses...