For those of you who are returning to this website, here are the latest shots. First time here? Intro is a few photos down. Although it is getting further and further down as I add new photos to the top of the page. As of Oct 27 I haven't found any myxos for a few weeks. I am trying to culture some at home by putting bark pieces in plastic petri dishes on moist paper towel. We'll see how that goes.
I started looking in earnest for slime molds at the beginning of May and finally found one May 16, 2024. It was a Lycogala sp. , aka Wolf's milk. Following are shots taken of the slime mold group on a log over a period of 8 days.
After a week of following the Lycogala to see how it changes over time I finally stumbled upon two other genuses of myxomycetes. The white one is Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa and the reddish one is likely Arcyria sp.
It's always an added bonus for me when a critter is also in the scene as above. And then this morning a snail was checking out the Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa and took a bite and then moved on.
And then because of its bright color this Red Raspberry Slime Mold (Tubifera ferruginosa) caught my eye even though it was quite far away. And on the same log was what I am pretty sure is Fuligo septica aka Dog Vomit slime mold.
That is it for the new stuff May of 2024
Well here it is January of 2024 and no myxos in the wild for months now. So following photos are from bark piece kept in my basement in a moist chamber.
Rain doesn't have to wreck the shot.
I've been following a group of slime molds like the one above and now they look like the following:
Following myxos in the wild is often frustrating as many things can happen to wipe out these tiny items. In light of that I brought home a small piece of bark that had slime mold and have continued to follow it at home.
Sometimes when photographing or looking for slime mold (aka myxos) I come across other interesting looking life forms which I assume are likely fungi. So I am going to start including photos of these intriguing non slime molds. These tend to be even smaller than the slime molds and often I find them when I look at the back of my camera checking on a slime mold shot.
While photographing the above the slug eating a mushroom caught my eye
Today a fungus caught my eye (Bleeding Fairy Helmet {Mycena haematopus}) and when reviewing on back of camera I saw slime mold. So, of course, I zoomed in.
Then I returned 24 hrs later and took these shots.
A snail ate the mushroom and left the myxos alone (you can see them to the right of the snail)
I think this a fungal group that I noticed when photographing a myxomycete. This is approx 1/10 the size of the myxomycete, which is in the following two photos.
Seven days and one heavy rain later and we're down to one burgher.
At a quick glance this Honeycomb coral slime mold (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa) looks like a deer, which I often see when out photographing slime molds. I'm in the woods, afterall.
Slime molds are an interesting, small generally, life form that was thought of as fungal for a long time, It is now recognized as its own kingdom. We non-biologists tend to think of life forms as being either plant, animal, or fungus and now we need to add slime mold (myxomycetes). Back in March of 2023 I was introduced to the existence of myxomycetes because of my interest in macro photography. And I have been hooked ever since. It took a few months for me to actually find one and now (largely due to the time of year) I find them pretty readily. I have a three mile walk that I have been doing for years now that goes through a local park. This park has a log that is host to a number of genera of slime molds. They will be show cased here. Usually what is photographed is the fruiting body stage of their life cycle. So I will start with a photo taken as a Tubifera ferruginosa aka Raspberry slime mold was changing into a fruiting body. This first photo is of a single cell with multiple nuclei that is spread out about an inch across. The next photo is of part of it already changed into a fruiting body which will release spores for starting the next generation.
And here's one that looks like Raspberry slime mold but for the color.
But both of them end up like this.
And some end up as snail food, apparently.
Next shots possibly genus Stemonitis. Approx. 2mm tall
I think this is the same as the ones above just not growing up side down.
Lycogala epidendrum, aka Wolf's Milk, comes in different colors.
Physarum sp taken 24 hours apart. Like most of the fruiting bodies shown here these are very small. 2mm or less in height and photographed at 2 to 4 times magnification.
Honeycomb coral slime mold. Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
Next to a fungus
Super close up showing the individual spores
Cribraria cancellata.
Another one I haven't identified.
ππ³π€πΊπ³πͺπ’ π₯π¦π―πΆπ₯π’π΅π’, aka Carnival Candy Slime Mold, photos taken one day apart.
Every now and then while photographing a small creature will wonder into the picture.
Pretty interesting variety of life on one log, I'd say. Photos taken over a period of a couple of months. Also observed while photographing, fox, deer and many people walking their dogs.