Cauliflower Slime Mould Enteridium lycoperdon: Images Added

[Harold Gough]

Each morning I put out food for birds in various parts of the garden. I don't recall this being there before this morning:



The pair filled a span about 80mm wide. This subject responds very well to the Micro Contrast Enhancement in Topaz Detail 2:





The sun was still low in the sky and behind thin cloud. Should I wait? The colour temperature varied a little during the session and I have not adjusted this. The rain started as I composed the final shot!

The substrate is a dead (several years) branch of the Weeping Willow tree, up against it was leaning, placed there for our cats to escape the local foxes. That is a willow tree leaf clasped between the two mounds of slime mould. (Breakfast?).

E-P2, Leitz Wetzlar Elmarit 60mm macro, f11, ISO 200, tripod, time delay. Metering was either off a green leaf and locked or by compensation of +1.7. The brilliant whiteness made focusing exceptionally difficult.

Harold

[Cactusdave]

A very interesting subject. I've never seen anything quite like that. A result of the monsoon weather we have had in South East England for the last couple of weeks no doubt.

With regard to Topaz detail effects, don't forget:

It's easy to overdo, but easy to moderate to taste using the small, medium and large detail sliders.

Sometimes when you increase sharpness and detail you may need to make a round of careful noise reduction afterwards as sharpening and contrast enhancement emphasize noise as well as desirable detail.

If the starting image already has discernible noise, it's maybe best to minimise that first, carefully checking you are not loosing any important detail by zooming into it as you go, before attempting sharpening or detail enhancement.

These are personal thoughts.

David

[Harold Gough]

Thanks, David,

I'm not sure about the weather effects. Last year, another genus (yellow) appeared on the other end of the log and was washed away by the next day's rainfall. Rain penetration into wood wiill increase as decay progresses but may be only superficial in fairly solid logs.

At present I'm using the defaults in Detail and single passes. I may have once used two passes of Focus, on an image not yet posted. De-noising before starting is something I will try. I used low ISO to minimise noise but some folk say a long exposure on low ISO can give more noise than a shorter one with moderate ISO. I decide not to use ISO 100. With DeNoise I use only the Light option so far.

Harold

[ChrisRaper]

Interesting subject - thanks for sharing What does it look like if you get really close to it? Is it a fairly amorphous jelly or is there some microstructure there?

[Harold Gough]

Interesting subject - thanks for sharing What does it look like if you get really close to it? Is it a fairly amorphous jelly or is there some microstructure there?

It looks like it would go well with cheese sauce, just liike a miniature cauliflower, brilliant white and opaque and apparently of firm texture.

Harold

[orionmystery]

Nice shots, cool looking mould.

[Harold Gough]

Thanks, Kurt.

[Harold Gough]

Interesting subject - thanks for sharing What does it look like if you get really close to it? Is it a fairly amorphous jelly or is there some microstructure there?

It looks like it would go well with cheese sauce, just liike a miniature cauliflower, brilliant white and opaque and apparently of firm texture.

I decided to put my finger where my mouth was. I walked down my garden to test the consistency of the blob. It was somewhat squishy, with a firmish surface. But the appearance was not as before (and thus perhaps the texture had changed). The change was noted 8 hours after the initial shots:





These were similar settings but hand-held. (In spite of the apparent flash reflections, flash was not used).

Harold

[Harold Gough]

Twenty-six hours after taking the first images, the blobs seem to have been nibbled by the local wildlife.

Tripod used, ISO 200, f11 for wide shots, f8 for close-ups. Raining throughout.



Detail:





Detail



I would expect the outer surface of these fruiting bodies to darken considerably, and for them to become hard and solid, withinn about the next 24-48 hours, if the damage is not too severe, or they are further chewed.

Harold

[Ken Ramos]

Appears to belong to the Lycogala spp. but I am not sure. The yellow plasmoida are quite common and are usually Fuligo septica but I have also found some organisms quite similar to Fuligo that are white in color. Interesting set of images. Snails, slugs, and cryptic slime mold beetles are responsible for the feeding.

[Harold Gough]

Appears to belong to the Lycogala spp. but I am not sure. The yellow plasmoida are quite common and are usually Fuligo septica but I have also found some organisms quite similar to Fuligo that are white in color. Interesting set of images. Snails, slugs, and cryptic slime mold beetles are responsible for the feeding.

Thanks Ken, but this is Lycogala on another log last November:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=15198

With respect, I'm sticking with Enteridium lycoperdon until convinced otherwise. Of course, I am only going by gross appearance so I could be way out.

Fuligo did appear briefly on the other end of the same log last year.

Those beetles certainly are cryptic if they are responsible. I would like to find some to photograph. We have Muntjac deer and occasional squirrels plus a selection of rodents as potential nibblers.

Harold

[Harold Gough]

After a further 48 hours of wet weather. Some nice fine structure there, an attempt to seal the open 'wound'?:



After a further 48 hours. The fine, filamentous, exterior structure has gone. The internal, fine, granular structure, and the colour of it, is macroscopically similar to that of the insides of a puffball or earthball fungus:





Harold

[Ken Ramos]

Don't know why but I must have miss read or misunderstood your post on the ID. Getting old, must have been a senior moment. Good set of images here and quite interesting. I have a species, possibly a Physarum genus I am presently trying to ID. As for the cryptic beetles I have an image somewhere among my eumycetozoan files of one of those beetles. If I find it, I will make a post. It may not be a cryptic slime mold beetle, as I am only going on an assumption that it is.

[Harold Gough]

Don't know why but I must have miss read or misunderstood your post on the ID. Getting old, must have been a senior moment.

I suspected you might have overlooked the intial post or something. Either that or you had spotted one of my senior moments! (No prizes offered as it is too easy these days).

Good set of images here and quite interesting.

Thanks. At least, they should look fresh, as it was raining for most of the shots!

I have a species, possibly a Physarum genus I am presently trying to ID. As for the cryptic beetles I have an image somewhere among my eumycetozoan files of one of those beetles. If I find it, I will make a post.

There are some good websites listed in my contribution the the FAQs. I look forward to seeing your images.

It may not be a cryptic slime mold beetle, as I am only going on an assumption that it is.

I think the muntjac deer may have done the nibbling. We get the same sort of damage on windfall apples in the autumn.

Harold