Lime green Slime Mould for id please.

[hillrover]

If anyone is old enough to remember lime green socks, this slime mould was the same colour. My attempts to reproduce the colour have not been very successful.
Photographed yesterday.
It was growing on a rotting log - spruce or larch most likely. It was in a dark corner of the wood. The patch was quite small - about 4-5cm diameter.
Location - Foxglove Covert, Catterick Garrison.
Any ideas or suggestions gratefully received.

Christine

[Chris Yeates]

hi Christine

I can't see a picture - is it just me?

I forayed at Foxglove Covert many years ago on a YNU VC65 meeting; interesting spot - it was the first time I had ever seen Velutarina rufo-olivacea - the dot's on this map (the most northerly in England it would appear):

NBN Gateway - interactive species mapper

best

Chris

[hillrover]

OOps Fool!

Herewith the picture.



Yes, Foxglove is very interesting. Not least getting in and out!! "Report to the guardroom" is not a common instruction on an LNR.

[Lancashire Lad]

It's only just beginning to form the Sporocarps, and so at this stage looks considerably different to how the mature slime mould will look.

My best guess having seen something similar before, although a more bronze colour, would be one of the Stemonitis species. (The first time I saw it I thought they were some sort of insect eggs).

If you are able to return to the spot today/tomorrow, you may find the mature specimen - although some of these things are very ephemeral, and it may have already matured, spread its spores and disintegrated.

Hopefully stickman (Nick) and Kevin Lawson will see this thread - they may have a better idea of exactly what it is.

Regards,
Mike.

[Chris Yeates]

don't forget there is a Myxomycetes sub-forum . . . .

Chris

[stickman]

Hi Christine

I agree with Mike that this will probably mature to be a Stemonitopsis. S.flavogenita is the species usually associated with a coloured plasmodial stage.

I have often wondered, however, whether the plasmodium colour is dependant on 'diet': The stage we can see in your photo occurs just after the plasmodium has gone on a 'feeding frenzy', engulfing all manner of things including bacteria and fungal spores.

I wonder if yours has had a green alga-heavy diet?

Interestingly, it is often possible to observe bacterial and algal cells inside myxomycete spores - it has been claimed that the sneaky little myxos carry the cells with them on their journey only to start another colony they can prey on......kinda like micro-farming.

Anyway if you happen to pass the site in the next couple of days remember to take a camera with you!

Cheers,
Nick

[hillrover]

Thanks for your help, everyone. Very interesting.
I am hoping to go back to Foxglove tomorrow to re-check on a number of things, including this. Camera very much at the ready. It will be interesting to compare for a number of things.

Christine