Hi all, I live in UK and we've had a lot of rain this year so, when I spotted this in my garden, pressumed it was something to do with the excess water. However, after reading around sites like yours, wonder now if it's a type of organic thing? There are several patches of this all over the lawn...it kind of looks like dark green/brown jelly. I have kids and cats so I'm worried that this might be harmful to them. Any ideas would be most welcome. Thanks for the site, it's very interesting. :)
If it's under a tree, it might have come off the tree. We have that coming off the flowering cherry that is a street tree in front of our house.
There is a patch of something similar that can be found here in UBC BG (and it recurs every winter). I tried to figure out what it was and came up short. I posed the question to a few professors and still nada. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem harmful. I don't think it's fungal (and it's not lichenous) so I've moved the post out of that ID area.
Could it be soil amoeba? I remember learning about these simple organisims in advanced biology class.
Interesting... it is there too. there is a lot of it out here, and I just heard from someone in Arizona who found it too. was not there before either. Question: Did you have algae in the soil or any water that was there before? Is the ground saturated in that area?
I have seen a lot of this jelly and have a ton of pics of it, but here is one for the books! What on earth is this? That is where I found it, but could only find one. It was attached to a plant in shallow water. It had seeds, not eggs embedded in it. Has anyone seen anything like this? I have been unable to find anyone who knows what it is.
Here is a link to a scientific explaination for the alien jelly that may be of interest here. http://www.umaine.edu/WaterResearch/FieldGuide/inthewater.htm#eggs Go down the page to "orange slime or fluff".
Yes, we encountered a mass in Trout Lake in Vancouver once that we were informed was likely frog eggs. I think the original post was something found on the ground, which I think is unlikely to be eggs - but you never know. It might be a lead.
Here are the seeds as I call them in the jelly I posted which as you can see in the previous post are all gone. What is the insect looking back at you from inside this jelly mass? Does anyone know?
Re: My jelly Blob: It is called Pectinatella magnifica. It is in fact a live organism, and here it is in it's death stage, normal for this time of year. Retired assistant Dean of U. of Mass. recognized and identified it. I researched it, and sure enough that is it. It is interesting to research. Has a fossil history of 500 million years, lives in fresh water, and is rare. Is also supposed to be vulnurable to contamination but I found a interesting research article that mentions it's strong ability to mutate, which could explain how it has survived 500 million years of evolution. It would not likely be harmed by waters containing excess nutrients either as this would feed it. The "seeds" as I called them are 'statoblasts", which are seed colonies of future generations. They will emerge next season. The insect peering back at us is the only unanswered question here now.
