What is this stuff in yard?

[Muse]

I've seen this stuff in the yard for a few years now, lately more and more. It looks like a cross between cotton and steel wool. It doesn't look organic but I'm now forced to believe that it is, that it's growing, proliferating, spreading. It's always on or very near the ground, typically in/amongst a pile of leaves. WHAT IS IT? My guess is that it's some kind of weird fungus. Very strange.


http://imgur.com/hg1LyN8

Edit: I took some to a local nursery that's been in my town for decades but the two guys there were at a loss.

 

[Mike64]

Do you live somewhere where tumbleweed is a possibility? (Though I'd have thought a experienced nursery owners or employees in that area would recognize it, if so.) The picture's not very clear, but from a distance, it looks vaguely similar, at least, to this photo of (apparently) Salsola tragus, (though I do suspect the latter is a lot thicker and "plant-y-er" looking closer up.)

If that (or another tumbleweed) isn't it, and it is in fact "alive", I think it would all but necessarily be some sort of fungus. I'm not up on my technical botany these days, but with no pigmentation at all, I don't see how it could photosynthesize, and while there are some saprophytic "plants", as far as I know they all grow "rooted to" soil. Have you found any places where it's attached to anything? Even If it is a fungus, it would have to be attached to some sort of substrate at some point in its life cycle, otherwise it couldn't absorb the carbohydrates it would need to grow (and without being able to photosynthesize, it couldn't produce its own.)

 

[Pick2]

Looks like what I get when I brush out My Dog
Take a small amount and see if it burns or melts. Might give you a clue. What does it smell like when burnt ?

 

[FeuerFrei]

Some polyfill a bird picked up to build a nest. Probably from a torn cushion or stuffed animal.

 

[Mike64]

Some polyfill a bird picked up to build a nest. Probably from a torn cushion or stuffed animal.

That was my initial thought, too, but assuming the OP clears pretty much all of it when he finds it, it does seem odd that it would turn up (I assume regularly, in similar places?) "for a few years" if that is what it is. But the flame test Pick2 mentions will determine whether it's synthetic or some sort of natural fiber quickly enough, as an easy first step to identifying it...

 

[Muse]

The sample in the photograph is around 2" long dimension, nothing like that tumbleweed.

I'm going to burn it now and smell it. I have a very sensitive sense of smell. If it's hair of some kind I'll know in a second. Yes, it's been going on for at least 2 years. Very hard indeed to imagine that this is from a cushion or something. I am inclined to believe it's some weird fungus, however I've never encountered anything like it. I could bring it to the UC Berkeley Extension (I live in Berkeley). If it's a life form, I think they'll be able to ID it.

Edit: Just applied flame to it and it readily burns, leaving behind a black/brown solid substance. My color ID is suspect because I am colorblind (total green blind, AKA deuteroptic). I didn't detect an odor, oddly enough. Definitely not hair or plastic, I'd say. However, maybe it's some kind of plastic that doesn't give off an odor when it burns?

The sample in the photo is fairly fresh and therefore almost white. When it's been sitting in the yard a while it gets dirty/dusty and looks a pale shade of brown from the dirt, is my thinking. The cylinder you see in the photo is the shank of a largish rusty nail, there to hold it down from blowing away. It's sitting outside on a table. That should help with the scale.

 

[Pick2]

Ha , I saw the nail and was thinking it was a rusty 1/2 inch pipe. Threw off my size estimate a bit. I'm sticking with my Dog hair Guess
Have someone living up wind from you with a white dog ? How 'bout a real old couple with fluffy white hair ? ( In Florida , they call them Q-Tips )
You Don't live in Roswell , New Mexico , do You ?

 

[Mike64]

Just applied flame to it and it readily burns, leaving behind a black/brown solid substance. My color ID is suspect because I am colorblind (total green blind, AKA deuteroptic). I didn't detect an odor, oddly enough. Definitely not hair or plastic, I'd say. However, maybe it's some kind of plastic that doesn't give off an odor when it burns?

How big a sample did you burn? I'm certainly not well-versed in "unusual" plastics so for all I know there may be one that burns with no discernable odor, but I've never come across such a thing. On the other hand, I've also never come across any sort of "plant-based" fiber that would burn with no odor at all either, and leaving behind a "solid substance" rather than more-or-less powdery ash certainly sounds more like plastic than any sort of plant-based material. You could try just calling the extension office. Since it seems pretty unusual, they might know what it is without needing to see it for an ID if it is in fact a plant...

PS: Assuming the color in your photo is reasonably accurate, it's pretty much dead white, in the "non-pigmented" sense, like white animal hair (including the human variety). My monitor isn't calibrated or anything, but I don't see the slightest hint of green/chlorophyll in those strands/filaments.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Looks like it could be 'excelsior' or wood wool, although that may be too fine and too white.

Has a variety of uses, including as a packing material, swamp cooler pads, erosion control blankets.

 

[Muse]

Looks like it could be 'excelsior' or wood wool, although that may be too fine and too white.

Has a variety of uses, including as a packing material, swamp cooler pads, erosion control blankets.

The sample in the photo was around 2" x 1.5" x 0.5" ... I often see bigger clumps, but that seemed big enough to get a decent photo. I did a lot of clean up of the yard yesterday, raked a 6 cubic foot wheel barrow FULL of leaves and dumped them in my compost pile. It's in material like that that I see this stuff, I'm thinking, so there may not be much left ATM. If I look around pro, though, I think I can probably find some.

Just looked up "wood wool," then realized I've seen that stuff. This is definitely not that. Wood wool always has (in my experience, I think) an unusual cross section. this stuff seems like the cross section is close to a circle, but very fine. Indeed, it looks white, at least before it gets dirty.

I didn't burn much, it was just that little clump in the photo. I've seen much bigger clumps around the yard. It's been getting more frequent. At any one time, unless I'm cleaned up, I'm likely to spot as many as 1/2 dozen clumps of it. It doesn't seem to be attached to anything, feeding on anything, which augments the sense of weird.

It definitely isn't dog hair or any other kind of hair. Burning hair gives off a very strong odor I would have spotted instantly.

 

[mrblotto]

Seen any 'pods' lately?