HAPPY SUNDAY! Hope you’re enjoying this hot, hot weather. Anyway, I’m looking for any tree growth experts, botanists, mycologists (would that be a proper term?) to share their theories about what this Thing is. A Crazy reader, Walnut Creek Street Walker, sent these photos in. Street walker was out doing, I suppose, what street walkers do, and happened upon this strange formation … Right in the Middle of our Downtown! … And Street Walker snapped some shots–photographic evidence!–of its existence.
It’s actually pretty beautiful, isn’t it? Maybe a little Georgia O’Keeffe-esque? Many thanks Street Walker for sending in these shots.
Crazy in Suburbia 
SM,
That is a bracken fungus. They are saprophytes on dead trees and parasites on live. These are common in the wild and there's no reason they should not appear on urban trees occasionally.
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Dear Anon 8:33:
I knew there would be someone out there, far more educated and informed on these matters than me.
Thanks for filling me in.
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It's the fruiting body of a brackeT fungus, some of which are known as brackeN fungi. This one is of genus Laetiporus, commonly known as sulphur shell.
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I gave you no permission to photograph my bracken fungus. Please remove this picture from your world wide web internet website or I will report you to the googles and the internet explorers and you will be taken off your computer forever.
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Anon 12:13 pm,
Be advised. You may have a fungal infection that is affecting your brain.
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That's wild! I'll have to look for that tree. I was too busy at the Walnut Creek and Martinez Farmers' markets today. Hauling about $1500.00 worth of produce and chatting with dozens of farmer friends. It was a fun day – but too too hot!
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Does anyone know how long that will remain like that on the tree? Just curious.
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Run for your lives!!!!!!
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If we don't get a Neiman Marcus this stuff will be all over the place. AAAAHHHHHHHH.
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Anna:
It will stay there until (and if) someone removes it. As it dries, it will become ratty-looking and then it will harden. Since YOU are the lemon lady, perhaps this is a good time to mention that Laetiporus is considered an edible delicacy by some….. like rattle snake meat and 99% of everything else we choose to sample from the wild??….. “tastes like chicken”. WARNING: only experts should collect and eat wild “mushrooms”.
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