Slime Mould Lycogala epidendrum

[Harold Gough]

This was growing in the same habitat as the Candle Snuff fungi, in a beech wood, on rotten beech logs. I shot various possible slime moulds. This, the only successful image, I thought was a fungus (Bulgaria type).

I am advised that it is Lycogala epidendrum.

The beech leaf Fagus sylvaticus gives the scale:



This crop shows the main area of interest:



Slime moulds are in the Amoebozoa group:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoebozoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_moulds

See also links in our FAQs.

Harold

[Cyclops]

So there are white fungi here and the small yellow objects are the slime moulds?

[Harold Gough]

So there are white fungi here and the small yellow objects are the slime moulds?

No. It is all stages of the slime mould. If you look at the link you will see a pretty pink stage of the large, spheroid bodies, which was not present.

http://www.biopix.info/lycogala-epidend ... 84322.aspx

Pretty, isn't it?:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snappysnapper/5870709026/

Here is a schitzophrenic one:

http://wildflowers.perverdonk.com/Mushr ... _frame.htm

Harold

[Cyclops]

Oh so i may have seen some already!

[Harold Gough]

Oh so i may have seen some already!

Or you have Cramp Balls, various Daldinia spp

http://www.northamptonshirewildlife.co. ... ntrica.jpg

Harold

[Cyclops]

Oh so i may have seen some already!

Or you have Cramp Balls, various Daldinia spp

http://www.northamptonshirewildlife.co. ... ntrica.jpg

Harold

Harold, Im sure Ive photographed such on a dead tree stump!

[Harold Gough]

Larry,

I'm not disputing it, just mentioning a similar alternative.

Harold

[Cyclops]

Larry,

I'm not disputing it, just mentioning a similar alternative.

Harold

Oh I know, I was just saying the pic in that link reminded me of one I photographed and thought was a fungus. Ill find the photo to show you.

[Harold Gough]

The mould was found again on Christmas Eve. This time I used a tripod, exposure times longer than one second being indicated at ISO 400, with the Olympus 35mm macro 4/3 AF on the E-P2. I set 8 seconds anti-shock delay and used AF.

The coloured bodies are a few mm across.

0.5 second f7



The remainder are crops of further images taken from increasingly closer distances.

1 second f8 (the black spheroid object is an old one of the orange structures).




1.6 seconds f10



2 seconds f11



These pictures, especially the last, suggest that this is the Wolf's Milk Slime Lycogala epidendrum, so-called because of the form of the sporangium resembling a wolf's mammary gland. It is also called the Toothpaste Slime because the young forms, not shown here, contain pink paste.

Harold

[Harold Gough]

Having photographed the organism looking rather good on Christmas Eve, I was wondering, on Boxing Day morning, whether I could do better. However, it was now starting to dry out at the end of this active period.

All images have ben cropped by up to about 70% to exclude large areas of surrounding dead wood, devoid of slime mould:







A small portion, further down the log, and not quite so mature.



The hardware was the same as for the previous set and the exposures were similar.

I have found the 35mm macro lens and its AF, as useful here as I found it hopeless for active live insects.

Harold