My Hawaiian Umbrella Tree has a Mushroom?

XCrunner41 · White Belt Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

My Hawaiian Umbrella Tree has a reddish mushroom growing from the soil. is this bad? why is it there? what can i do??? i don't know much about bonsais.
it's inside my house but it's by the window so it gets sunlight everyday and i water it once every 3-4 days.

i also have heard that Hawaiian umbrella trees get flowers in the spring, but mine has not had any...will it get some?

Stymie

Hello Crunner.
I must admit that I have never had flowers on my Schefflera. Your care schedule sounds about right because they can stand almost drying out between waterings.
The 'mushroom' is probably no threat to your tree. It might even be a sign of an organically active planting medium. If you are concerned and wish to remove it, remember that it is a fruiting body from an underground fungus and the medium will need to be treated with a copper based fungicide or it will return.

Surrey John

Crunner, we had quite an extensive discussion about mushrooms on this forum last autumn. Generally speaking they can be expected with pines, and they don't seem harmful. Never heard of them on a H. Umb. tree, though 3 have recently appeared on the soil surface of my small Corylus - they look quite pretty. SJ.

XCrunner41 · White Belt Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

i came home today and there was a new mushroom. OK I'm glad they are not harmful! they kind of look cool! thanks a lot!

emorrin

According to this site, it is supposed to bloom with red flowers but I have not seen this on any of my scheffleras either. I have only had them for about a year though. I am assuming that they would probably bloom in a more tropical environment (i.e. higher intensity sun)

http://www.bonsaigardener.org/hawaiian-ubrella-bonsai.html

I actually think a mushroom or two would accent the plant just as long as they are not too big or there are too many of them.

Stymie

I'm not well impressed with the content of that site Ed. The watering advice is rather different to what I have previously heard and practised. Also. what about this quote? [The soil for this tree should be acidic with a pH level between 5.6 and 6.0. In addition, the soil should be mildly alkaline with a pH level of 7.6 to 7.8.] Laughing

emorrin

Don,

You are right, I didn't pay attention to the soil PH statements Embarassed

I guess I need to question the validity of that site. I was basically looking around to see if any sites mentioned about scheffleras blooming and that was the first one I came across. I remember seeing something about scheffleras blooming before but could not remember where I saw it.

I came across this site that says the Schefflera rarely blooms indoors. The article also goes on to mention that the Schefflera needs to be root bound. I also think that it would need to be larger, more like a house plant version, not a bonsai in order to bloom.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art50198.asp

Here is a picture of what the flowers look like:

http://mgonline.com/scheffleraf04.jpg