Dead Stone Pine

This Italian stone pine looks like it’s already dead. It’s impossible to determine from a photograph what killed a plant. It could have dried up, been kept too wet, gotten girdled by mice, been pierced by a borer etc. It’s even hard with a plant right in front of you to diagnose what went wrong once the plant is totally dead.

We assume that you’re also wondering about the pinkish covering on parts of this plant, and if that played a role. Again, from this photo it’s impossible to know what this is. It could be a form of slime mold – there are slime molds in many colors, and they often grow on dead organic tissue. So if this is indeed a slime mold it probably isn’t what killed this plant. But without culturing the substance in a lab it’s impossible to know if what you see here is a slime mold or some man-made paint or flocking material.

There are also some fruiting bodies of fungi that are pinkish, but again, impossible to see what’s on this stone pine from this photo.

Since this plant appears to already be dead it’s probably too late to do some diagnostic work – if the dieback had just started the plant could be taken from its pot to see if rotting roots, or overly dry roots were the cause. You can still look at the base of the trunk for borer holes or girdling bark damage.