I never realized or thought about how many slime molds(myxomycetes) are around us. Of course, it is hard not to miss the tapioca slime mold like I have shown y’all before. And you have probably seen the dog vomit/scramble eggs slime mold, but after watching a presentation at BRIT brown bag lecture by Ashley Bordelon and Harold Keller, I got to know slime mold better. And it is so interesting! Here is a link to the BRIT project: Fungi, Myxomycetes, and Trees Program. I have recently been finding them at home and the grasslands with all the wet weather. Ashley and Harold (both with BRIT) were kind enough to confirm an ID plus suggest a possible ID on another.
This one has a cool common name…Carnival Candy Slime Mold (Arcyria denudata)! It is less than 4mm tall. Jim had a suggestion for a name too, the corny dog slime mold 🙂
Do you remember me showing you this tiny one a few weeks ago? I thought it was a mushroom but it turns out it is a slime mold as well. Harold suggested it might be either Didymium or possibly Physarum. Thanks Harold!
These I found on a grapevine bark. These are the sporangia, the fruiting bodies. Sorta look like a tiny mushroom. Both mushrooms and slime mold have spores. Slime mold does not have hyphae like mushrooms and lichens. This website has a good chart that shows the difference between mushrooms and slime mold : Difference Between Slime Molds and Fungi. Still hard to tell the different many times.
Slime mold on a Post Oak leaf.
Close up.
This one has white sporangia. The white corny dog slime mold would be the name I would call it… LOL.
Little gray slime mold!
Close up.
Looks like a slime mold to me. I was lazy and did not look under the scope to confirm if it had hyphae or not.
Maybe slime mold in the early stages of producing the sporangia.
And I apparently brought home a weevil with the slime mold. And I showed you the nematode that was in with the slime mold in a previous post. So much to find!
Sooooo many kinds. I gotta keep an eye out. Now I wonder about the fruiting bodies we saw on a sweetgum tree a few weeks ago. Maybe we’ll see it again.
Super video!
I love Jims corny dog slime mold.
Sooooo many kinds. I gotta keep an eye out. Now I wonder about the fruiting bodies we saw on a sweetgum tree a few weeks ago. Maybe we’ll see it again.