Typhula incarnata

Typhula incarnata is a basidiomycete fungus in the family Typhulaceae that causes gray snow mold, also called speckled snow mold or Typhula blight, a winter disease of cool-season turfgrasses such as annual bluegrass, bentgrasses, fine-leaf fescues, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and tall fescue. It forms reddish-brown sclerotia roughly 1.5 to 3 millimeters across during cool, damp autumn weather; these germinate beneath snow cover and produce mycelium that infects grass tissue, protected from freezing by extracellular antifreeze proteins. As snow melts in spring, circular grayish-brown patches around 15 centimeters wide appear, though the grass typically recovers because the fungus does not kill the crown tissue. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/