I water my back yard frequently and one morning found these little odd little strand-like growths in a patch of lawn about 100 cm square on July 23rd, 2008. Each cluster consisted of approximately 20-25 bodies, each about 1 cm long. The bodies were quite flexible (though not easily broken) and, although they adhered to one another, could be separated into individual bodies with minimal effort. Each cluster sprouted from the green parts of both grasses and catnip. I don't know when they first appeared, but they have persisted for about 15 days without changing either in size or form. Can anyone give me an idea as to what I these are?
Looks like a species of Stemonitis... my only doubt is that they've remained relatively static for 15 days (slime molds usually progress rapidly through their life cycle). Perhaps climatic conditions aren't right for them to move to the next stage in their life cycle.
how interesting...they DO look like a form of stemonitis? but i've never seen any so MOIST looking. all that i've come across are very dry and dusty (spores). would like to know what u come up with for an ID
No ID yet; but I do have two more bits of info. First, in response to Daniel Mosquin's comment regarding the unusually long duration (approx. 15 days) of the bodies, I'm afraid I greatly overestimated their duration; after consulting with my house-mate she was absolutely positive they only endured for approximately 5 days before disappearing completely. Second, I did observe the day before they disappeared that one of the strands was completely enclosed in a white-grey colored mucus which was as long as, but significantly wider than, one of the brown ones. I wonder if this helps confirm these bodies as slime molds of some sort; my own mycological knowledge is restricted entirely to basidio- and ascomycetes, so I really appreciate the help from this thread's contributors.
