Rusty Pine Tree

Patty and I went for a walk the other evening, just down and back on our road. And on the way back, almost home, I spotted this.

A brain growing on a pine tree limb. A curious sight for sure. It was the bright orange color of course that caught my attention, very rare for a brain.

Back home I did a little sleuthing on the interwebs, and best I can tell this is Fusiform Rust, a fungus that attacks both pine and oak trees, although only on pine does it look like this. As I (and you!) can learn from the linked page, while the fungus usually does little damage to oaks, it can be fatal to pines. It will be interesting to see what happens to this tree.