tiny orange spheres

[dchung]

I was about to water the Vanda this morning and I noticed a series of tiny orange spheres on some of the roots at the base of the plant. The spheres are bright orange in colour and appear to be suspended from the roots by a tiny white stem. The spheres are probably a millimeter or so in diameter and a clumped in small groups on some of the roots.

Over the course of the day, some of them have turned black/brown see attached _1.jpg vs _3.jpg.


Any ideas as to what they are or how I should get rid of them?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

They look like eggs of some sort. Maybe snail eggs.

[DavidCampen]

Great photos! What type of camera and settings did you use?

My wild guess would be that perhaps these are the fruiting body of a slime mold. If so then I wouldn't expect it to be harmful to your orchid.

Edit:
Here are some photos of slime mold fruiting bodies:
MyxoWeb-A Virtual Field Guide to Myxomycetes

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

They look like eggs of some sort. Maybe snail eggs.

The bottom most ones in the 1st photo appear to be on stalks which is why I discounted eggs.

[dchung]

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

Great photos! What type of camera and settings did you use?

Its a simple point and shoot camera. Canon Powershot A495 in auto mode (1/20, F3.0, ISO400)

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

My wild guess would be that perhaps these are the fruiting body of a slime mold. If so then I wouldn't expect it to be harmful to your orchid.

I'm hoping you are right. Any suggestions to prevent and/or remove?

[DavidCampen]

Slime molds aren't really fungi but I would guess that a drench application of a standard fungicide still might work.

Here is another fruiting body photo:
Unknown Fruiting Body's

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

The bottom most ones in the 1st photo appear to be on stalks which is why I discounted eggs.

Oh...

Didn't see the ones with stalks!

That's pretty interesting!

[ezil]

I used to have these in my garden. I always thought they were tiny mushrooms. They never did any harm, and disappeared as soon as conditions became warmer and dryer. I thought they were kind of cute, but I would not have tolerated them on my orchids!

[syspila]

Small fruiting fungus...does not look like a problem to me.