Are these beauties fungi? Can someone identify what looks like fungi on this moss and leaf? I spotted these white dots as I was admiring all the different moss in my garden. Looks like tiny mushrooms, but are they? It was getting dark fast when I took these pictures, and I had to use a flash to take the pictures, which is why some of the pics look yellow. I've done a search on the internet, including this site, but came up blank. Whatever it is, it's quite beautiful, especially close up. Any ideas?
Oo la la! I'm thinking it is a slime mold, as it seems to be growing on the surface of the substrate. As to which one, there are books in the library at work. Will check tomorrow.
Slime Molds Daniel, I never thought of slime mold. Thanks to your tip I did a new search and discovered that slime mold used to be classified as fungi, but no longer. Here's what I found on the internet - The slime mold in my pics are probably of the myxomycetes class, perhaps in the didymium genus. The one thing I can't find out is the proper way to spell slime mold. I've seen it spelled slime mold, and slime mould. Here are some cool pictures I found of slime molds Slime Mold that look similar to the ones in my pics - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwolf/2203228478/ http://slimemold.uark.edu/fungi/web...ImageKey=36A91312-B5FB-4174-B0DD-2EAC68F76C2C some more mushroom-like slime mold - http://www.flickr.com/photos/myriorama/3655893660/in/set-1271006/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/myriorama/3750321119/in/set-1271006/ Other Slime Mold - Here's a colourful slime mold on some moss - http://www.flickr.com/photos/johns_pics/286256353/ and another slime mold on more moss - http://www.biopix.dk/Photo.asp?Language=la&PhotoId=61030&Photo=Didymium-melanosporum Here's an incredibly beautiful slime mold - http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Diachea+leucopodia More on the same slime mold - http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Europe/Spain/photo86556.htm http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php?pagetitle=assetfactsheet&imageid=23047&themeid=4 Here are many pictures and tons of information on Slime Molds - http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Eumycetozoa Incredible photos of slime molds - http://englishrussia.com/?p=2059 Which I originally found on this thread - http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=45762&highlight=slime+mold Here's a website dedicated to forest slime molds - http://www.hiddenforest.co.nz/slime/index.htm A to Z slime molds - many pictures - http://slimemold.uark.edu/fungi/WebForms/ImageSearchForm.aspx?letter=D Here's a photographer who's taken many beautiful pictures of slime molds - http://www.flickr.com/photos/myriorama/sets/1271006/ Flickr - to view many beautiful photos of Myxomycetes Slime molds - go to www.flickr.com and search for myxomycetes How to collect slime molds - http://www.dlia.org/atbi/methods/slime_mold.shtml Think I got a little carried away doing this. I never knew that the world of Slime Molds is so incredibly diverse and beautiful :) Update - October 25, 2009 I couldn't resist. Looking further into slime molds on the web, I've come across some more interesting websites about - you guessed it - slime molds. More photos of slime molds - http://www.myxoweb.com/snow.htm http://www.funghiitaliani.it/micologia/tassonomia5.html http://www.aphotofungi.com/page29.html http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1156 http://www.sharnoffphotos.com/nature/myxomycetes/myxo_index1.html http://www.sharnoffphotos.com/nature/myxomycetes/myxo_index2.html http://www.sharnoffphotos.com/nature/myxomycetes/myxo_index3.html http://resurrectionfern.typepad.com...without-a-trace-a-tribute-to-slime-molds.html http://izismile.com/2009/09/22/stunning_slime_mold_74_pics_1_gif.html http://obychnogo.net/miksomitsety http://www.designswan.com/archives/beautiful-macro-photography-shots-slime-mold.html http://frazer.northerncoloradogrott...olorado-crannies-in-a-dry-late-august-part-i/ http://www.kahaku.go.jp/special/past/henkei/hen-eng-tenzi2.htm Photos of slime molds, fungi, etc. Look at Nos. 39 & 40 for the slime mold pictures http://www.mykoweb.com/picpages/misc_photos.html Tom Volk's excellent fungi website, where you can also see Slime Molds. Search his pages for slime molds. http://www.tomvolkfungi.net/ Photo of a weird lacy fungus, that leads to a cool video http://tarp.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/slime-mold/ Here's straight to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khEAZabMtOk A blog entry, linking to pictures of slime mold http://wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2007/03/googling-slime-mold.html#links Slime molds are intelligent? Who knew. The intelligence of Slime Molds http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jan/071 Slime Mould Solves Maze Puzzle http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s189608.htm More on that is here - http://thinkorthwim.com/2007/05/01/slime-mold-the-plant-that-can-solve-a-maze/ Robot moved by a slime mould's fears http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8718 Slime Mold gets respect http://researchfrontiers.uark.edu/6321.php And more articles, with photos http://catalogue-of-organisms.blogspot.com/2008/09/diversity-of-slime-moulds.html How to grow slime mold http://miriam-english.org/files/slime-molds/AmateurScientist_slime-mold.html A Simple Method of Growing the Plasmodial Slime Mold http://www.educationalassistance.org/Physarum/EasyToGrow/PHYSARUM culture for web.html
Yep, I'd agree with your identification of Didymium. The resources you've assembled here are great, by the way. Slime molds are awesome, one of my favourite groups of organisms -- rarely encountered, ephemeral and an interesting biology.
Thanks Daniel. Update on slime mold - First picture - shows what the same slime mold looked like this afternoon, after it rained overnight. Second & Third pictures - show how the same slime mold looked yesterday, as originally shown in my first post above (the third picture has been correctively rotated).
EXCELLENT! What great images and information. I LOVE slime molds! I wish there were more books with images as great as you have taken here to help ID these amazing living things.
Thanks C. Wick. And I love your enthusiasm. I got lucky with the photos - spotting the white dots on the moss was serendipity. I'm going to pay more attention to the wee things growing around here. Now, if only I can figure out how make sharper images with the digital camera :) More info - On my 2nd post I've added more links to websites showing slime molds. Look for the Update. Quick link here - http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showpost.php?p=231985&postcount=3
THANK YOU SO MUCH forestlover!!!!! Fantastic number of links :) I love these organisms too! I think the spelling difference is purely UK English and US English variants? You may be interested in a fairly recent book : http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8952.html - The Social Amoebae : The Biology of Cellular Slime Molds. miss myxo (in London, UK)
Thanks to the efforts of miss myxo, who contacted a slime mould expert in England, there's now an identification:
