white powdery stuff on this tree, what is it?

[yolandamgd]

While I was exploring the woods behind my boyfriends house, we discovered this strange looking substance on the tree trunk of a small sapling? The tree trunk was about an inch or two around. It looked like it was made up of white strands that turned powdery when I scraped it with a stick. The substance wasn't on the leaves just the trunk and I noticed another small tree nearby that had the same stuff on it. I have "googled" powdery white substance, tree fungus, mildew but I still can't find anything that doesn't look like a mushroom.

[Kisal]

Any chance of you getting a photo and posting it for us? It would be interesting to see the growth. I'm sure it's some type of fungus, but just what type I couldn't really guess without seeing it.

[cjbjelan]

I was wondering if my lilac bush has a fungus of some sort and what I should do about it?

Christine