I showed two or three examples of slime molds in an earlier post but since then I’ve been seeing them everywhere and have to do something with all the photos, so here they are. Slime molds fascinate me because of their almost endless variety of shapes, colors and forms. They can be hard to find sometimes because they avoid sunlight and grow only in dark places. This means that photographing them can be challenging, but it can be done. Slime molds can also be very beautiful in my opinion, so I’m going to try to go easy on the scientific jargon and just let you enjoy looking at them.
Some slime molds can be very small and others quite large. This one in its plasmodium stage was easily as big as a dinner plate. When slime molds are in this state they are usually moving-very slowly. Slime molds are very sensitive to drying out so they usually move at night, but they can be found on cloudy, humid days as well. I think this might be many headed slime mold (Physarum polycephalum.)
This photo shows how slime molds, even though sometimes covering a large area, are actually made up of hundreds or thousands of single entities. These entities move through the forest looking for food or a suitable place to fruit and eventually come together in a mass. I think this one might be spreading yellow tooth slime (Phanerochaete chrysorhiza.)
These are the “teeth” that make up the spreading yellow tooth slime mold in the photo above. They are fruiting bodies that will release spores produced on their surfaces. These fruiting bodies are so small that they are rarely able to be seen with the naked eye.
From a distance this slime mold looked like any old gray, fuzzy forest mold, but as I got closer I saw that it was actually thousands of very thin filaments. I’ve never seen anything like it and can’t find it in books or online.
This is a close up of the slime mold in the previous photo. It looks like a pile of tangled fishing line, but each filament looked smaller in diameter than a human hair. I don’t know what benefit there would be to a living thing taking this form, unless it is to increase its surface area. It is certainly one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen in the woods and if I hadn’t seen it for myself I think I’d have a hard time believing that it was alive.
I’ve seen photos online of slime molds very similar to this one but the people who took the photos didn’t have any more luck identifying it than I did. For now all I can say is that it is a white slime mold, possibly a Physarum, in the plasmodium stage. I had to use a flash for many of these photos because of the cloudy day and forest darkness.
I think this might be another example of spreading yellow tooth slime (Phanerochaete chrysorhiza.)
This is another white slime mold in its plasmodium stage. Its name and species are unknown to me, but I think this one is very beautiful-almost like coral that has somehow escaped the sea.
This one won’t win any slime mold beauty contests that I happen to be judging, but it is unusual and the only example of the kind that I’ve seen. I think it might be chocolate tube slime mold (Stemonitis splendens.) The many tiny filaments were hanging from the underside of a log.
I showed a photo of this white finger slime (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa var. fruticulosa) a post or two ago but I’m seeing it everywhere and I like it.
I think this might be dog vomit slime mold (Fuligo septica.) That’s an unfortunate name for a very interesting bit of nature. In the plasmodium stage this slime mold is transparent before it goes on to become a sponge-like mass called an aethalium, which is pictured here. An aethalium is a “large, plump, pillow-shaped fruiting body.” This is also called scrambled egg slime mold because in Mexico, when it is in its plasmodium stage, it is collected and eaten like scrambled eggs. This is usually done on nights with the light of a full moon so the transparent plasmodium can be more easily seen.
I think that this is another example of Fuligo septica. At this stage the slime mold forms a hard crust that eventually degrades and darkens in color prior to releasing its spores.
This photo shows the darkening process of Fuligo septica just starting.
One of the most interesting things about slime molds is the many colors that they come in and how they can change color and form seemingly at will. When some slime molds dry out they become similar to powder on dry leaves. I see this most often with yellow and orange slime molds, but here it has happened with a blue one. Slime molds can be almost any color. Yellow and white seem to be most common but they can also be green, pink, purple, blue, red, orange, brown, and black. Part of the fun of slime molds, for me, is trying to find all the various colors and shapes. This is only the second time I’ve seen blue.
I hope you find slime molds as beautiful and fascinating as I do. If so, the next time you walk in the woods after a rain on a humid summer day, look a little more carefully in those dark places that you wouldn’t expect anything to be growing in. You might be surprised by what you find.
I love nature, I just don’t want to get any of it on me.~ Woody Allen
Thanks for coming by.
New Hampshire Garden Solutions 
Very interesting post!
Thanks!
Maybe what’s needed here is a new common name. How about “Jello Pancake”?
That works for me but I’m not sure you’d get it by those scientists. Maybe if you translated it into Latin it would fly!
Fascinating, Allen…and unlike Woody, I don’t mind getting some of Nature on me. 😉
I can’t imagine letting Woody Allen loose in the wilds of New Hampshire or Utah. It would be a fuuny thing to see. I’m glad that you’re a little more open than he to embracing nature.
What a fantastic collection of slime molds. I photograph them every time I get a chance, which lately is not often.
Love the Woody Allen quote. I thought I had made that one up myself – I apply it to my wife, as in “She loves nature, as long as she doesn’t get any of it on her.”
Maybe I stole it instead of making it up!
I thought that quote was hilarious no matter who came up with it, especially when connected with slime molds. Maybe Woody Allen was sitting near you in a restaurant and you didn’t realize it.
I can’t ever remember seeing anything like these. Of course, I don’t often look under logs or in dark recesses. Is there a particular set of conditions (e.g., after a rain) in which you find slime molds? Or am I just looking in the wrong places?
They can’t stand dryness or sunlight, which dries them out quickly. I find most of them on the first hot, cloudy, humid day that happens a day or two after a rain. They like “wet air.”
I have a friend who is very fond of slime moulds but it hasn’t entirely rubbed off on me yet. I’ll keep my eyes open though.
Maybe you could get together and photograph slime molds one day.
They look like wonderful splashes of paint, as if an artist has used the forest as a pallet. I wish I’d seen some in my travels but I haven’t. I’ll be sure to be looking out now though 🙂
Some of the best web sites for lichens, fungi and slime molds are based in England, so I know you have some beauties there. And you’re right-they do look a lot like splashes of paint from a distance.
I think I need a BIGGER camera to see what YOU FIND lol or new glasses 🙂 Wonderful post of my backyard SLIME
Thank you. I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-S27 for macros like you see here. It will get very close-almost microscopic.
cool I will start saving 🙂
It’s a relatively low cost camera but it has a Leica lens and you get a lot of bang for your buck.
I have an Olympus with 16 mp as back up sort of the same size as yours byt I do love my easyshare though she is not working super macro as I went and deleted updates 😦
I realized something this morning while reading this post. Your blog is changing the way that I wander through the woods, and not in the way that you would think. Instead of paying attention to things like slime molds that I see, I cruise on past them, because I know that you’ll be posting photos and more information on them than I have the patience to look up. And, your photos show them better than I could see them with the naked eye without my glasses.
That’s OK though, it’s like going for two walks instead of one.
I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing Jerry. I’ll have to think about it! Slime molds, mushrooms and wildflowers look much better in person than they do in photos.
Very cool post! I think I’ll stick with the scrambled egg slime mold name, I just can’t bring myself to think of someone eating dog vomit slime mold!
I know what you mean. I’ve tried avoiding using that name but that is its name, like it or not.
I’ve never seen slime molds here with the exception of one that appeared in the garden and couldn’t be missed, Physarum cinereum, I think. We must have them at least in the autumn and spring when it is damp. I must look closer as they look fascinating.
They are facinating things and are actually quite common on lawns and in gardens. There are even some that love to grow on wood chip mulch.
Very interesting… I might have to venture out in the heat and humidity and fight the mosquitoes just to see what slimy things I can find…
Curious, dedicated, or crazy-that’s what I ask myself when I’m crawling on my stomach shooting slime molds. i think all three come into play at times.
I’m amazed by the colors and textures of the different slime molds, especially when you show them really close up. Your descriptions really help me understand them a whole lot better, though I am not sure that I can say that I find slime molds as fascinating and beautiful as you do. Maybe it’s an acquired taste.
I didn’t see much beauty in slime molds at first either Mike, but as I learn more about them their beauty has kind of grown on me, so I guess it really is an aquired taste. someone said “There is beauty in all things, but not everyone sees it,” and I think that is very true.