Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
scrambled egg slime mold (imature)
fuligo septica (imature)
50.8843, 5.98617
Field Notes
Description:
They're not mushrooms--in fact, they're not even fungi--but they do wind up on a mushroomer's radar screen with some frequency, usually as "sporangia" (see below). Is it a puffball? Is it a sickening mass of jellylike globules? Why am I taking a picture of this?
-----. . . and so on. Obviously, if you want good information about slime molds, you'll need to go elsewhere on the Internet. I just checked for "SlimeMoldExpert.Com" and got nothing--but see the links at the bottom of this page. If you are a slime mold expert, please try not to laugh as I stumble through a brief description of the slime mold life cycle.
---Plasmodium:This stage is the creepy stage. Like something out of a B-movie, the slime mold plasmodium is a mass of glistening veinlike material that creeps across dead leaves or wood at the rate of as much as an inch per hour, growing, eating, and probably doing other nasty things we don't even want to know about. There are no cell walls in the plasmodium, and its motion is the result of protoplasm flowing rhythmically through the organism.
Habitat:
Scientific name: Fuligo septica (L.) Wigg.
Derivation of name:
Synonyms:
Common name(s): Scrambled-egg slime.
Phylum: Myxomycota
Order: Physarales
Family: Physaraceae
Occurrence on wood substrate: Occurring as slimy to
crust-like sheets or cushion-like iregular masses on stumps,
logs, living plants, and wood mulches in landscapes; May
through October.
Dimensions: Masses are 2.5 to 20 cm long, almost as wide,
and 1-3 cm thick.
Description: This slime mold first appears as a white to
yellow slimy mass with dimensions as given. The "flesh"
transforms into a crusty, cake-like mass of darker and
variable color. The brittle crust easily breaks away to reveal
a dull-black spore mass.
Edibility: Inedible.
Comments: Although many slime mold species fruit on
wood they do not form a penetrating and absorptive mass
of hyphae in the wood substrate. Rather, slime molds form
structures called plasmodia which are naked (i.e., without
cell walls) masses of protoplasm which can move and engulf
particles of food in an amoeboid manner. Slime mold
plasmodia creep about over the surfaces of materials,
engulfing bacteria, spores of fungi and plants, protozoa, and
particles of nonliving organic matter. At some point,
plasmodia convert into spore-bearing structures.
In Fuligo, the plasmodium converts into a cushion-shaped
mass of spores enclosed by an outer wall called a peridium.
This structure is called an aethalium (plural: aethalia). Fuligo
septica produces the largest spore-producing structure of
any known slime mold
( http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/crust%20and%20parchment/spec… )
Notes:
Slime molds do not fit at all into the kingdom Fungi. They have been traditionally studied by mycologists because their small, delicate fruiting bodies tend to be fungal in appearance. Most slime mold fruiting bodies are really quite beautiful. In this picture A is Lycogala epidendrum, B is Comatricha typhoides, C is Badhamia utricularia, D is Dictydium cancellatum. Slime molds are often found on old well-rotted logs, because there they can find the moisture and bacteria required for survival. The fruiting bodies produce spores, which can germinate to form myxamoebae or flagellated swarm cells. These later fuse to form the plasmodium, which later forms the fruiting body. Most of the fruiting bodies are only a millimeter or two in height so it does take some searching to find them. However, it's well worth the time and effort, especially if you have a hand lens or a dissecting microscope. Their beauty is amazing. I have some more online images of slime molds here. For more information on slime molds including a world-wide directory of people who study slime molds, please visit MyxoWeb, created and maintained by Denise Binion. You can find a picture of a Fuligo septica plasmodium by Bill Roody there also ( http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/june99.html )
Comments (4)