Slime molds are coming

2^nd weekend of October is walking weekend when friends from the south east come to enjoy or endure whatever the elements throw at us. One day was the Carneddau from Llyn Ogwen. Near the top of Pen yr Ole Wen we bumped into 6 other walkers and for a while followed them as they faded in and out of the clouds. Much later we heard a helicopter and the next day’s news included the rescue of 6 walkers stranded on a ledge overlooking Cwm Llafar. We saw no-one else all day - was it the same group?

On the other day we did a cross over from Ganllwyd to Barmouth via Cwm Mynach and Diffwys. For most of the ridge walk we enjoyed the inside of fast moving cloud and the partial windshelter of stone walls. Heads down views of wet upland and lots of hairy brown and orange caterpillars (were these Fox Moth - Macrothylacia rubi?) with waterproof properties superior to Goretex. 

Mucilago crustacea

But view of the day had to be the Mucilago crustacea slime mold. I won’t attempt any explanation of this but encourage you to read Natur Cymru edition 41 which will feature an article on slime molds written by Dr Bruce Ing (formerly of Mold!). He will also be describing them on the Radio Wales Country Focus programme in early November.                   

A pair of slime molds

Walking home through Coed y Bleiddiau, part of the Maentwrog nature reserve, I saw a pair of unusual objects about 10 foot up a tree. Bearing in mind some of the unusual sculptures on the nearby nature trail I thought I’d best check with the warden to see if this was another work of art. Not art but nature or maybe witchcraft. These were slime molds.

Doug (the warden) kindly copied me a 7 page document about the finer details of slime molds. It was the sort of prose that requires a dictionary every other word and by the end of the first page I was none the wiser.

What I have managed to absorb is that they are shape shifters. A bunch of amoeba? Reach for the dictionary and you will understand they are a ‘genus of Protozoa’.  Amoeba is derived from the Greek word meaning change and Proteus was a Greek god who could change his shape. So now you know.

Looking at the images on Wikipedia I can see that mine most closely match the False Puffball, Enteridium lycoperdon. It’s at the stage called ‘aethalium’ which precedes the release of spores after which it’ll look like the dried remains of a mudball.

If you go down to the woods today, you’ll never believe your eyes.