Ruud Kleinpaste: The trials of dealing with Nostoc Fungi

Have you heard of Nostoc?  

It's scientific name, Nostoc commune, sounds like a chat between Trump and Putin but it’s actually a living organism that troubles more than a few Kiwis on their quarter acre paradise.  

Brown-green “gorilla snot” is another name, star jelly, witch’s butter, and mare’s eggs... But most folk call it brown, slimy scum. 

It’s a colony of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that form dense gelatinous mats of slimy and leathery bits and pieces on driveways, gravel, and bare soil.  

It is usually terrestrial but can also be aquatic (such as in wet paddy fields). 

The trouble with this stuff is its persistence and difficulty to control. It reproduces by binary fission, meaning each cell simply splits in two when conditions are suitable.  

Gardeners often complain that it thrives on Roundup weedkiller, and most other weedkillers for that matter (I doubt that, by the way!!). Chlorine and salt don’t work, and bleach simply runs off the rubbery squishy invader. Copper sulphate and sodium hypochloride are also ineffective.  

On the various online “help me” websites (hilarious to read, by the way) people state that some Benzalkonium chloride (a quaternary ammonium compound often used as an algaecide) may be the answer.   

Why is it so difficult?  

Nostoc occurs anywhere from the tropics to the dry valleys in Antarctica – an impressive range of climatological conditions. In summer it dries out to a crispy, brown material, while in winter it’s lush, soft, and spongy, and blueish green or olive green.  

It’s particularly good at coping with water stress. A colleague once did some experiments showing that it could lose more than 70% of its weight in water before cell metabolism was affected – hence its success on driveway shingles. 

It grows on alkaline soils in the tropics and doesn’t care about brackish water either. It’s resistant to heat as well as continuous freezing/thawing cycles and it produces no oxygen when it’s dormant. Despite the fact it hasn’t got Chloroplasts, it can fix Nitrogen from the atmosphere. 

Nostoc is eaten in Asia, but it’s not recommended (there have been some suggestions of toxicity). Having said that, some varieties (such as Nostoc commune var. sphaeroides) may be beneficial by means of an anti-inflammatory mechanism. 

So… how do we control it on our driveways?  

Good question! Let us know your success stories… 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A gorilla snot. It's a hell of a name. It's
a hell of a problem too for anyone who's got
in a near back yard, because you pour a bit
of round up on it and it does not go away.
Rude climb past as our men in the garden. He's
here with us this morning and he's got a few
tips on controlling gorilla snot at your place. It's called nostoc, right.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
It is called nostoc Isn't it a lovely word, a
lovely name. It reminds me of Trump.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's lovely, it does it sounds like, yes exactly. Some
former Soviet agents has put it in the tip of
a sharp umbrella. And yeah, anyway.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, gorilla snot I like that. Or star jelly it's
another one, and which is butter yeah, which.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, yeah, that's not nice.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Have yeah, have you ever seen it? You've got to
be unlucky. You've got to be unlucky to have it
in your garden. But in Northland it's quite common as
well around here in the South and it's one of
those things that is if you like like a blue
green elgaeus no bacteria. Yeah, and it's slippery. It's dangerous

(01:28):
if you drive your car up when it's when it's
going on your on your driveway, you could you could
have all sorts of troubles there. Yeah, it's nasty stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
So what do you do about it?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well, that's the last the last thing that I said.
A good question. Let's know if we hear any success
stories from from people that listen to the radio. But
there are a couple of things that that can be done.
Like some people talk about benzol conium chloride and things
like that, that may be the answer. Some people say,

(02:01):
yes it is, but here you go. What it looks like.
Let me first describe it, if we've got a minute.
It's that blue greenish type stuff. At this time of
the year, especially when it's wet, it goes up to
about two or three inches high, and this is slippery
as hell. When it dries up, it is as hard
as heck. You know, you can't. You have to kick

(02:23):
it with your feet to get But that it doesn't matter.
It just keeps on growing. It just keeps on going
for a next one. So that is the problem. And
people say, as you said, before copper sulfate and sodium hypoglorate.
You know, are they effective? Well some people say yes,
other people say I don't think so. You know, this
stuff occurs in the dry valleys of Antarctica.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Are you serious?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, which are basically this is the closest landscape to
miles on Earth, right.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Exactly impressive range of climatological conditions if you think about it,
and so you can try what you like, but if
you can stand Antarctica, boy, your garden is down to
some trouble. And that is basically what this was about.
What did we do? A colleague once did some experimental

(03:16):
showing that it could be losing more than seventy percent
of its weight in water before cell metabolism was affected.
It was that sort of stuff. So we actually we
actually don't know chloroplasts, fixed nitrogen whatever, nasty stuff. Yeah.
So this is why if you if there's any people
that knows what to do, I'd love to know, because

(03:38):
there's a lot of people looking forward to that, especially
at this time of the year.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah. I suppose it doesn't burn, not that I'm suggesting
you burn things seriously, but because because it's so liquid, right,
it's not the sort of thing you can just yeah, okay,
Thanks Road. We'll see what we can find out. Seevenone's
got some good suggestions for getting rid of your rock
snot by all means the number. Thanks Road.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
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