Growth on side of tree

[hiker russ]

This growth is on a live fir beside the Hunchback Trail. It is about 8 inches long. What is it?

There are also several conks along this trail. Here's one:

Thanks.

Bill

[nate]

Maybe a Slime Mold?

[raven]

Was the white growth a hard solid, almost akin to a piece of plastic?

[hiker russ]

Nate I had never heard of slime mold so I did some looking online for info and photos. Sounds like slime mold is associated with dead plant material. This was on a standing live fir.

Raven I did not think to poke at it so I'm not sure how solid it is. It looked solid.... It did not look layery....

[raven]

I've run into such stuff several times, usually associated with dead trees and located where each tree had split, as though the pressure from the accumulating material was partly responsible. In your photo the stuff seems to have found a way to the surface before the tree went down, but otherwise it's similar what I remember finding.

White rot is the term for a tree disease associated with some tree fungi. The fungi destroys the wood eats the lignin and cellulose producing the white stuff. According to what I've read, normally the fruiting bodies are supposed to be visible on the tree surfaces -- we've all seen tree fungi -- but I never saw any when I saw the dense accumulation of rot. At leat, that is the impression I receive by reading articles such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood-decay_fungus

Notice in the picture linked below from http://www.mushroomexpert.com that the white rot is located where the tree split, and no tree fungus is visible on the surface:
.

The accumulations I've seen In the coast range and the Oregon Cascades are -- as with the photo posted at the start of this thread --much denser and larger than any pictures I have located on the web.