Question
QUESTION: Yesterday I found some unknown fungi on my lawn that drips black liquid. what is it? is it poisonous? what should I do with it?
Thanks

ANSWER: Fear not.  The  LSU AgCenter's website post, 'Slime Mold Sinister, But Not Harmful To Lawn' explains it all:

www.louisianahouse.org/en/lawn_garden/home_gardening/lawn/disease_pest_management/Slime+Mold+Sinister+But+Not+Harmful+To+Lawn.htm

'After long, extended wet periods, a sinister looking Fungus or Slime may appear, attacking Lawns in the cooler season ahead... The Fungus most often occurs in mild, wet weather in Spring and in late Fall.'

That's in Louisiana.  Depends on where you live.  Where do you live?  What's your Grass called -- Bluegrass, Fescue, No Idea?  Please advise.

L.I.G.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I live in Calgary, Canada, and I don't know what type of grass I have. The website you said cannot be displayed.

Answer
The LSU link is not working?  Try it again!  I copied the address into my browser after I read your comment, and the website popped up immediately.  It's true that a website can be moved, but I was there just a few days ago, and sure 'nuff it's still connecting.  Give it another try.  Alternately, you can search for the words Slime Mold Sinister, But Not Harmful To Lawn and it will pop right up in the LSUAgCenter.  I think you'll find it interesting even in Ontario.  Slime is slime.

Various sources point to Calgary was being one of the Sunniest spots in the entire Canadian nation, as well as famous for introducing Chinese Ginger Beef to the world 30 years ago.  Your best selling Grass, however, I do not know.  So we'll have to look at ALL possible Grasses which is not so hard.  Here goes.

STRIPE SMUT is a Cool Season Fungus disease, caused Ustilago striiformis, that you find on ALL Cool Season Turfgrass -- the kind you use for Lawns in Canada.

Typically, you'd have a week of cool, rainy autumn weather in the 50's.  And if you had any interest in what your Grass looks like up close in the pouring rain, you could step out one chilly morning and kneel down on the Lawn where you would then see on some infected blades streaks of Yellow.  Next day, they would be Gray.  A few days after that, perhaps just as the rain was beginning to end, the streaks would be Black; dew or raindrops would have mixed with the Black powder and turned into Black goo. At this point, the cell wall of the Grass has ruptured and Fungal spores have been released.  Leaf tips curl down and the whole blade turns Brown and dies.

There are Fungus-resistant varieties of Grass.  But the conditions needed for an all out attack on the entire Lawn, or even large sections of one, are so specific that it is rare to find a case that needs ANY cure at all.  This disease cures itself.  Once it stops raining, once the temps get too cold (in the 40s) or too hot (in the 60s -- all these temps are Fahrenheit by the way), the spores remain dormant.  They have to.  It's the only way they can survive.

Freaked out?  Alarmed that you can harbor Fungus spores in your Grass waiting to attack?

Look at it this way.

You never worry (I assume) about Fungus attacking your Sandwich.

You read that right.  You don't worry about that.  You've got two pieces of bread, and it simply does not cross your mind that a Fungus is going to make it inedible, right out of the blue.  No one worries about that.  And if they do, we both know that their worst problem is NOT the Fungus or the Sandwich.

But you don't worry about it, and neither do I.  And neither do the umpteen gazillion people who will be reading this.  Right, everybody?  We DO NOT CARE about Fungus on our Sandwich.  We eat it, we're done, no Fungus, no problem.

However, if we put that Sandwich out in the rain for a few minutes, and then we stuck it in a paper bag in the refrigerator, and looked at it 3 days later, that Sandwich would be covered by so much mold we would be CRAZY to eat it.

Fact is, those spores are EVERYWHERE.  Right now, where you are, those spores are on the keys of your computer.  They're in your hair.  On the paper next to you.  Hanging off the ceiling (I think...).  They're waiting to grow on the towels you use to dry off after a shower.  They're on the loaf of bread you buy BEFORE YOU OPEN IT!  And when you give them just the right conditions, which includes H2O, they grow like there's no tomorrow.

That's just how it is for your Grass.

You don't buy Fungicides for your Sandwich.  You don't spray Fungicides all over the Bathroom to keep the Towels from getting Mildew.  And unless you hold a lot of stock in a Fungicide manufacturer, it makes no sense what-so-ever to waste time and money dealing with this particular Fungus.

Keep those Towels dry, use that bread up, wait for some of that dry Sunny weather Calgary is famous for and DON'T water the Grass.  Now I think I'll order some Ginger Beef for lunch.  No sandwich today.

Oh... Try to get that LSU website again, it has some good graphics.  And thanks for writing.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER