dog vomit slime mold
fuligo septica (matured)
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:
I'm sure you can see why I'm sort of hesitant to give up the interesting emails about this organism, but I'm sure there will be others to take their place. Incidentally there's no way to get rid of it, so I recommend you just enjoy it. Some people have written telling me they keep washing away the fruiting bodies with a hose, but that just allows the swimming spores to spread more easily. There is no known danger to humans or other animals from inhaling the spores or ingesting this organism, although I don't think you will have a pleasant dining experience if you decide to try it-- I do not recommend it. Can you believe I still get dozens of emails every year about these slime molds? I get at least 5 emails per week from people asking how to get rid of slime molds, stinkhorns, cannonball fungus, and other fungi in their mulch. You can read about this on my mulch page. I will not answer any further emails about how to get rid of fungi in your yard. THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT THEM short of paving over your yard, so you might as well find some way to enjoy it. :) I hope this page helps your enjoyment
( http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/june99.html )
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