What is it?
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
It looks like a Fuligo Septica.
A Slime mold also known as (brace yourselves)...
Dog's Vomit (or Troll Butter etc.)
Not exactly a fungus and not exactly an animal, it can move about.
A Slime mold also known as (brace yourselves)...
Dog's Vomit (or Troll Butter etc.)
Not exactly a fungus and not exactly an animal, it can move about.
I did see some last year in the same wood, if they are there again this year I will spend a while poking and photographing - then we might get a positive ID 
The mystery thickens, but hopefully with some more information about it.
I checked out Fuligo Septica but i dont think that it is that.
I have just been out in the woods to check on another couple that Mel and I have spotted in the last few days. To our surprise we have quite a few stages of its life on display in various places. I will go and take some pics tomorrow.
To start with, they look like the picture that I first posted. Next stage seems to be almost egg shell like (sometimes almost a blue tint). Then brown areas (the colour of quite a light cramp ball / drinking chocolate) start to appear from the base of the body - with patches slowly covering all the surface until it is all brown.
Final stage seems to be sporing. The entire body turns to the consistancy of very fine powdered drinking chocolate, holds shape and slowly blows away / gets knocked off.
Back tomorrow with some pics.
I checked out Fuligo Septica but i dont think that it is that.
I have just been out in the woods to check on another couple that Mel and I have spotted in the last few days. To our surprise we have quite a few stages of its life on display in various places. I will go and take some pics tomorrow.
To start with, they look like the picture that I first posted. Next stage seems to be almost egg shell like (sometimes almost a blue tint). Then brown areas (the colour of quite a light cramp ball / drinking chocolate) start to appear from the base of the body - with patches slowly covering all the surface until it is all brown.
Final stage seems to be sporing. The entire body turns to the consistancy of very fine powdered drinking chocolate, holds shape and slowly blows away / gets knocked off.
Back tomorrow with some pics.
Ok. Some pics in the gallery with some links to them below - in age order from the stage of the first picture posted.
Going brown
Brown and starting to shed
Shedding
I think that this one is youger still. I will keep an eye on it and see what it does.
Younger?
Ay more ideas?
Going brown
Brown and starting to shed
Shedding
I think that this one is youger still. I will keep an eye on it and see what it does.
Younger?
Ay more ideas?
I agree with Infragreen, looks like some type of slime mould. It could be Enteridium lycoperdon, this is what the 'Encyclopedia of Fungi of Britain & Europe' has to say:
" Comparatively large, cushion-like, whitish bodies with a somewhat rubbery feel, breaking down to reveal reddish-brown spore mass; on dead wood generally , though often still standing"
Here's a pic I found on the web:
Described as "soft to the touch as if filled with fluid"
" Comparatively large, cushion-like, whitish bodies with a somewhat rubbery feel, breaking down to reveal reddish-brown spore mass; on dead wood generally , though often still standing"
Here's a pic I found on the web:
Described as "soft to the touch as if filled with fluid"
