Bubbles Flow From Cheshire Trees

Walking to my front door during the heavy rain on Sunday, I noticed streams of bubbles flowing from several of the trees in my front yard.

I had never seen such a thing and asked my Patch Facebook friends if they knew what it was. 

I got these responses:

• F. F. Hitchcock Co., Inc. "Google Slime Flux" 
• Laura Irish Hefty "Yup, I tried looking that up by Googling "bubbling trees in the rain" and it came up with some neat hits. Slime Flux, like F.F. suggests..."

I did look up slime flux, but it didn't seem to quite fit. The bubbles weren't unsightly or smelly as several articles suggested is the case with the slimy stuff.

So, I turned to the experts at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. I got a quick response from Mary Inman, a technician with the station's plant disease information office.

Here's what she said:

That phenomenon is known as alcoholic flux, or sometimes white or frothy flux which occurs when various microorgansims colonize and ferment sap oozing from the tree.

Inman sent me a link to an article that explains the bubbling in detail. What I now realize, and suspected, is the bubbling has a bit to do with the dry conditions this spring. Cheshire was five inches below the average rainfall before our welcome weekend rains. 

If you've noticed other natural wonders or oddities and don't know what they are, let us know and we'll try to track down the cause!