If you think you might know what this black, crusty substance is, please go to my blog, scroll down to “Comments” and enter your guess as to what it is and how it got there. Answer revealed tomorrow. (Hint: It is not a gall, and it was found on a Speckled Alder branch.)
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
This entry was posted on October 19, 2016 by Mary Holland. It was filed under Mysery Photo, Uncategorized .
Click the image above to order the updated edition of the award-winning original NATURALLY CURIOUS
Click image to order from the publisher.
Click image to order from the publisher.
Click here to order Naturally Curious Day by Day
Click on image to order from the publisher.
Click on image to order YODEL THE YEARLING from publisher
Click on image to order OTIS THE OWL from publisher
Click on image to order ANIMAL TAILS
Click to order my newest children's book ANIMAL LEGS
Click to order my children's book ANIMAL MOUTHS
Click to order my children's book ANIMAL EYES
Click on image to order ANIMAL EARS from publisher.
Click here to order my children's book THE BEAVERS' BUSY YEAR
Click to order my children's book FERDINAND FOX'S FIRST SUMMER.
Click to order my first book, a photographic guide for children entitled Milkweed Visitors.
 | Alice on Ospreys Courting & Co… |
 | lydifeline on Ospreys Courting & Co… |
 | dellwvt on Ospreys Courting & Co… |
| Alice on Ospreys Courting & Co… |
| Alice on Silver Maples One Of Earliest… |
Click here to order ANIMAL HOMES from publisher.
An egg mass…Of an insect?
October 19, 2016 at 7:31 am
Fungus on a cherry tree
October 19, 2016 at 7:36 am
Black knot disease, caused by a fungus.
October 19, 2016 at 7:58 am
pin cherry black knot
October 19, 2016 at 8:00 am
It looks like frass, possibly aphids?
October 19, 2016 at 8:04 am
Smut… although smut likes the grass family. Could it have been passed along from an herbivore that had contact with a grass, then investigated whether the alder was yummy as well?
October 19, 2016 at 8:09 am
Chaga fungi (Inonotus obliquus).
October 19, 2016 at 8:09 am
Chaga fungus (Inonotus obliquus)
October 19, 2016 at 8:11 am
Can you please clarify a group question: Do the seeds pop on witch hazel after the flowering occurs, the same fall, or the following year?
“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Bob Dylan
Sent from my iPad
>
October 19, 2016 at 8:16 am
Hi Pam, The seeds are expelled the following year…see https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/witch-hazel-flowering-and-dispersing-last-years-seeds/ .
October 19, 2016 at 8:30 am
I don’t know the name but it is a growth on birch trees that is collected and used in teas, etc. for health and medicinal purposes
October 19, 2016 at 8:19 am
I have seen this since I was knee high to a grass hopper while exploring the woods, never really had a clue as to what it was, perhaps a fungus of some kind?
October 19, 2016 at 8:33 am
Have seen this before, but can’t remember the cause. Aphids?
October 19, 2016 at 8:35 am
It’s not Chaga. I’m pretty certain of that.
October 19, 2016 at 8:38 am
Black Knot?
October 19, 2016 at 8:47 am
Looks like black knot or a similar fungus.
October 19, 2016 at 8:51 am
Possibly black knot?
October 19, 2016 at 9:26 am
A chaga mushroom! They grow mostly on birch around here, but since alder is in the same family, you can sometimes find it on alder too.
October 19, 2016 at 9:35 am
That looks like the fungus that feeds off aphids’ honeydew.
October 19, 2016 at 9:39 am
black knot
October 19, 2016 at 9:41 am
Since you state that it was found on speckled alder, and it’s not a gall, I wonder if it’s something left by the woolly alder aphid (I think that’s what it’s called, and I’m resisting Googling for answers until after I’ve posted my guess). Perhaps the aphid “wool” gets crusty when it ages? After the aphids die? The “wool” is frass or some other type of exudate from the creature.
October 19, 2016 at 9:55 am
This is the remainders of hatched moth eggs, on a tree branch.
October 19, 2016 at 10:25 am
My guess is Clinker Polypore, Polyporaceae Aphyllophorales.
October 19, 2016 at 10:27 am
Some kind of fungus? Looks sort of powdery/sooty, like mold growing over a dried egg case.
October 19, 2016 at 10:36 am
Wooly aphid?
October 19, 2016 at 11:18 am
It looks like that black, tarry fungus that appears on fruit trees, only sort of dried out.
October 19, 2016 at 11:32 am
Crown Gall
October 19, 2016 at 11:58 am
Does it have something to do with ants farming aphids?
>
October 19, 2016 at 12:13 pm
What is your address so I can send a check?
October 19, 2016 at 4:21 pm
134 Densmore Hill Road, Windsor, VT 05089 – thanks!
October 19, 2016 at 8:50 pm
Is it something to do with ants farming aphids?
October 19, 2016 at 5:19 pm
I think this is Apiosporina morbosa, or black knot, a parasitic fungus.
October 19, 2016 at 7:32 pm
fungus
October 19, 2016 at 8:11 pm