This pink coloration is the sporodochia which bear numerous spores, or conidia, that facilitate transmission and disease spread. When the disease is active, especially on cool wet mornings, a faint pink hue may be observed on patch edges. Symptoms on higher cut turfgrass are circular tan brown to white patches approximately a foot or more in diameter that can coalesce to affect larger areas. On higher cut lawns such as Kentucky bluegrass or the fescues, Microdochium patch is less common, but when it occurs can be very conspicuous. Microdochium patch can occur on nearly all turfgrass species, with the most severe symptoms occurring on creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass. Conversely, the true snow molds, such as gray and speckled, require an extended amount of snow cover to develop, and are more regularly observed in the colder climates of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada. For this reason, the disease is also referred to (perhaps more correctly) as Microdochium patch by researchers, since symptoms also occur in the cool, wet conditions that have been the norm this winter. The disease can be particularly severe on unfrozen turf under an insulating snow cover, but the pathogen doesn’t necessarily need snow to form and cause damage. The pathogen is termed psychrophilic, or cold loving, due to its propensity to grow and infect in colder temperatures. Monographella nivalis) that is being observed in middle and northern Indiana this late winter. Pink snow mold is a disease caused by the fungal pathogen Microdochium nivale (syn.
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