'Snow' Jelly?

[mebeingme]

Hi,
I have really debated about posting this for fear of major embarrassment Walking along the edge of wooded area, came across two small patches of (?) at first glance thought was snow. We have had substantial snowfall around two weeks ago, but this has all melted away now. On closer inspection, translucent colour; texture was gelatinous and appeared to be ‘growing’ from leaf litter, detritus from the ground.



I can see evidence of motorcycle tracks and wondered whether this could be grease from bikes? However, this substance / species was not greasy & didn’t leave residue when handled. I have recently checked out a species called snow fungus (Tremella fuciformis) that appears to be very similar. From what I’ve read however, this species only grows in sub-tropical regions. I have now exhausted all possibilities - This is not a wind up

I did a search on google, put in ‘jelly fungus, uk’ and came across a weird article on BBC Scotland called “the jelly mystery”. There is a photograph half way down which has an almost identical image.

Does anyone have any insights as to whether this is a species of fungi & how I can analyse further?

[FungiJohn]

Hi

See:

The Jelly mystery

I'm still unsure / convinced what this may be ... but it's not a fungus for sure

John

[mebeingme]

Hi John,
Thank you for link - really interesting read. Sorry for cluttering up threads as this has already been covered; at least I know is def not fungi

I think the suggestion about slime mould and cyanobacteria appear most plausible, especially given alternate options of regurgitated frogs and alien poo

Within forwarded thread, ‘Fairplay mentioned that species of cyanobacteria Nostoc can swell up after heavy rain. Shortly after I took this photo, I slipped down the bank & was glad there was no one around – very heavy rain previous night. I certainly didn’t see any frogs, herons, stags or aliens (BBC Scotland). I need to have another look.

[Johnny M]

TV naturalist Chris Packham has been bombarding his twitter site with info on this 'phenomenon'. see:

You have received a new message on Twitpic
&
Chris Packham (ChrisGPackham) on Twitter

He's offered plenty of negatives but no suggestions of what it might actually be - though he did say that it looked like "Otter's anal jelly" when he first inspected it.

See: Otter | Wild About Britain

JM

[ashgale]

i came across this jelly like "growth" today, which appears identical to the original posters find,

this one was on an old conifer stump, and appeared to be firmly attached to the stump, as if it was actually growing from the wood itself, some on the top of the stump, and some on the sides,

although it was jelly like in appearance, it was almost firm to the touch, not soft or slimy in any way, it was not just a blob , but seemed to have folds and layers similar to Tremella type fungi,
i have found the blobs of jelly substance before , but this one appears somewhat different,






strange stuff !

[Johnny M]

Check it out against Noctoc:

"Nostoc is a genus of cyanobacteria found in a variety of environmental niches that forms colonies composed of filaments of moniliform cells in a gelatinous sheath [...] When on the ground, a Nostoc colony is ordinarily not seen; but after a rain it swells up into a conspicuous jellylike mass, which was once thought to have fallen from the sky, hence the popular names, fallen star and star jelly. It is also called witches' butter (not to be confused with the fungus Tremella mesenterica). Michael Quinion of the World Wide Words newsletter says that it is known in Welsh as pwdre sêr, or rot of the stars."

See: Nostoc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See Also: Star Jelly - Star jelly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

JM