Just in the last few days my son and I have found several variaties of slime moulds. Although I don't know the names of all of them I'm still searching for more and more. Normally slimes here come out en masse with rainfall but it's been extremely dry here this spring. Gray balls with reddish 'tufts' are Wolf's Milk (Lycogala ependrum) and Carnival Candy (Acryria denudata) both hanging out together. Yellow yuck is Dog Vomit (Fuligo septica) also called Scramble-egg Slime Hot pink 'blobs' is as of you un-ID'd by me The white and red 'balls on stalks' are varieties of Hemitrichia slime...I've seen these now in Yellow, Red, Orange, and White. As they age they'll spore or PUFF out of their goblets...resebling a martini glass with foam. The white slime tufts growing on the moss is a completely 'new' one for me. No idea what it's called. At a distance I'd thought it was a type of Coral Slime...but on closer inspection nothing alike in looks.
As always, your photos are beautiful, C.W. I especially like the final one, with the fungi's rough texture visible, and the white-balls-on-stalks, which apparently the sowbugs enjoy, too!
Thanx Togata....just this past week? We've counted 19 different slime moulds! Some possibly just different stages of form? But still amazing in it's variety. Thos little balls on sticks have to be some of my favorites (as it seems to be with the little bugs...lol)....the vivid red and the vibrant white were firsts for me this year. Previously yellow and orange were pretty much the 'main' color I'd seen them in. The Dog Vomit yummy stuff was the largest 'blob' I'd found so far....and that was by accident. I'd turned over a piece of wood to look at a snail? And there THAT stuff was....and a poor snail hadn't survived IT'S trip thru it. Was fasinating to see what the slime was doing. (poor snail) The hot pink blobs only last a couple days if even that long...but the balls I'm going back today to photograph along with the white 'laced balls'....The texture of those I find extremely beautiful. Thanx again!
I honestly don't know if the mould ate it or not? I haven't been back to that specific area and the Dog Vomit was at it's last 'stand' when I found it. I've seen slime moulds though that have eaten bugs like weevils! The Many-headed Slime mould will travel for yards with-in hours to find fresh food....I observed a patch that was smaller then a frisbie originally that grew to larger then a queen size bed in only a couple hours....then fade back to the frisbie only a few hours later once it's food was gone.
Who needs science fiction when science FACT is so awesome?!! Wow, C.W.---that many-headed would be GREAT on a time-lapse video! Would love to see it.
You know, when I was a child (back in the 70's) I remember seeing on Ripley's Believe It Or Not....a time lapse on that exact slime mould. I remember watching it CRAWL with these long yellow 'fingers' across it's landscape and thinking it was the grossest thing I'd ever seen. lol Now? I find it to be one of the most amazing and fascinating! Strange how we mature huh? :o)
With age comes wisdom, so it's said...what I tell my kids is that it's not that I'm SMARTER than they are---I've just been around longer! Through the years knowledge is gained, and if you know something about what you're looking at you're more likely to understand and appreciate it. Another thing I know: the more you learn about a subject, the more you realize there IS to know! Now I'll have to search and see if I can find the slime-mold video! Bet it's on the web somewhere.
Definately a good bit of sense! I went back today in the light rain shower (that turned into a DOWN POUR once I got into it) to go view how the differen't slime moulds were doing. The pink blob was a brown fluff of spore...the reds were yellow spore 'goblets' with more red ones popping up...and the white growing in the moss that was there all beautiful yesterday? COMPLETELY GONE! I was glad I'd recorded more images yesterday of it's amazing structure since the rain took it all away. I don't even know it's life cycle at ALL except for the white 'jungle gym' -like structure.
