Myxomycete on Fern (ID Help Please)

[Lancashire Lad]

Found this today, growing on the back of a Hart's Tongue Fern Frond. (Asplenium scolopendrium).

The fruit bodies had a very small stipe, and were in the region of 1.5 to 2mm in diameter.



Any help with ID much appreciated.

Regards
MIke.

[Alantb]

Trying to ID myxo's from pictures is being on a hiding to nothing. These look nice specimens but there are a lot of these little stalked things (Comatricha, Physarum, Didymium etc...) and they take a lot of sorting out even when you have them under the micro.
BUT as long as you keep them DRY and open to the air they will remain in this state for years. So what I advise is that you keep a sample in a matchbox (remember those?) or similar until you find someone handy who will look at it for you. One technique is to take a bit of the substrate bearing the sporocarps and skewer it to a bit of cork or expanded polystyrene with a small mapping pin so that the actual myxo remains clear of the container.
[As a guess these may be Physarum leucophaeum - but don't quote me!]
Best of luck, Alan

[Lancashire Lad]

Thanks Alan, I completely accept and appreciate what you have said about trying to identify such things. (as it applies to many of the larger fungi, let alone the tiny stuff).

Unfortunately, I didn't bring a sample home with me, and was just hoping to get a general steer towards ID in order to put something other than "unidentified" as a title to my pics., and so that I could do a bit of on-line research into whatever it was thought to be.

It's always nice to be able to recall "Ah yes, I've seen that before - it's probably a such & such", rather than "Ah yes I've seen that before, but still don't have a clue what it is"

I'll keep on posting, because sometimes things I might think are completely obscure do get brilliant responses down to species level. (But I appreciate that when trying to get an ID from photo's, it's a case of some you win - some you lose).

From Googling various sites/images, your suggestion of Physarum leucophaeum, does look to be quite promising though, so I'll log it down as possibly that.

Thanks again.
Regards
Mike.

[Alantb]

This is my pic of that Physarum. I can't remember the substrate unfortunately. I'd have put in on earlier but I forgot how to do it....
Any help?
Alan

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi Alan, thanks for posting your photo.

I know we'll never be certain without microscopy, but on the basis of photographic comparison alone, your fungus does look to be pretty much identical to the one I found.

I must admit, I found the fungus purely by chance, as I hadn't consciously considered ferns as fungal hosts. - Yet another type of substrate I'll have to keep an eye on in future

Regards
Mike.