Near spherical fungus on rotting pine ID please.

[The Woodman]

Could anyone one give me a steer to the ID of this fungus growing on a length of rotting pine, please?

The diameter of the largest spheres is approx 5mm (similar to a polystyrene ball) and when pressed, released a small cloud of spores. The surface was an attractive bronzy colour.

There were three similar groups on the log.

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi,

It is the slime mould Lycogala epidendrum (or possibly Lycogala terrestre). Macroscopically they both look very similar at this stage of development.

Regards,
Mike.

[The Woodman]

Hi Mike, the image was an afterthought!

Appreciate your ID but I imagine a slime mould to be just that - slimey. These little jaspers were minature puffballs??

Could you expand a little on their development, please?

[Adam Cheeseman]

I reckon they're a Lycogala sp. too.

Cheers,

Adam

[The Woodman]

Thanks Adam.

I've just had an education courtesy of Wiki and apologise to the WAB sages for calling this species a fungus. What an interesting life cycle.

[Lancashire Lad]

They start off in life like most typical slime moulds - the spore germinates into an amoeba like organism which feeds and eventually aggregates into a multi-nucleate swarm cell - eventually becoming a plasmodium that has the ability to move around looking for food.

The plasmodium eventually settles down at a chosen spot, and, in the case of Lycogala, morphs into the aethelia we see here - which are the mature "fruiting bodies" which sporulate to hopefully give rise to the next generation of the mould.

Most slime mould plasmodia (macroscopically speaking) are, other than perhaps in colour, pretty similar. (and yes, at that stage, they are "slimy"). It is only when they change into sporocarps or aethelia/pseudo aethelia dependent upon their species, looking more like various forms of tiny fungi, and no longer slimy, that we can (by means of naked eye) appreciate their diversity of form.

Regards,
Mike.

[The Woodman]

Mike, thanks for explaining that - it is really interesting and I've learnt something today.

It's nice to know here are other organisms wandering slowly around the woods looking for food!

[Ditiola]

According to the recent BBC program re: rotting and decomposition: Slime moulds can negotiate a maze to find the shortest route to food placed in the centre, and will they will also form a series of networks between food stations which form the most economic routes between the stations. When food was placed in scale to the same distance apart of the Tokyo rail stations the resulting slime mould pathways matched exactly to an overly of the Tokyo rail network which was planed to me the most economical use of rail connections.

Peter