My unprofessional opinion is that climate change is affecting these endemic roses and that they are in peril.

The answer to the Tang-colored mystery involves tiny spruce needle rust fungus spores that also rely on Labrador tea plants to survive.

Yellow Fungus (Phragmidium) on Wild Rose and other Plants

Last month a mysterious orange film ("goo" in the media vernacular) washed up on the shores of a northwest Alaskan village called Kivalina. An orange powder seems an odd product for the drying of crustacean eggs, but could make perfect sense for fungi -- specifically, the rust fungi.

CBC reporter Kaitie Fraser spotted this strange jelly-like substance in her aunt's backyard, growing on a cedar tree. In fact, her aunt said, when she first saw it, it looked like orange flowers at a distance. But when she started to approach it, it looked more like clumps of gummy bears.