Graney
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What this?Little patches of this rather odd growth have appeared in our orchard. It's growing down in the base of the grass and other plants under the fruit trees.
It's either white or yellow and gets partially washed away by a heavy downpour, only to appear again a day or two later.
I've got a feeling it might be a thing called a slime mold, which is like a fungus that can move. All rather SciFi 
Can anybody confirm that it is slime mold?
The images should enlarge if you click on them.
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blowin
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Re: What this? | Graney wrote: | | .... a fungus that can move. .... |
I think I need better specs --- can't make out quite enough detail , but that first one looks a bit "fluffy" , not smooth enough and too irregular in shape to be slime mould . It does , however , look very much like Wooly Aphid . I wouldn't be surprised if the slightly yellower blob is decaying Wooly Aphid . Apple trees are a favourite haunt so you might well find small colonies beneath them , particularly if someone has been spraying soap solution about the place . Like I said , the ordinary green or black aphids just climb back up the stem , the Woolies don't seem to be able to do this once their fluff has been washed off . Must be very pure soap . You should trade some for greenfly spray ! 
Sorry , couldn't resist it in view of the other thread . Try touching the stuff ( it won't bite , whatever it is ) . If it is aphid wool it is so soft you can't feel it . I think slime mould is more like thinish jelly . I could be wrong on all counts tho' . Let us know .
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Graney
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I've re-sized the pictures to give you a better view ..... wanna borrow my specs? 
If you double click on them they should enlarge to original size in Image Shack.
Definitely not woolly aphid. Yes, it is wet and squidgy. Look at the top of the pic of the white one ... it's very slimy.
This is what I mean by SciFi:
| Quote: | | In 2006, researchers at the University of Southampton and the University of Kobe reported that they had built a six-legged robot whose movement was remotely controlled by a Physarum slime mold. The mold directed the robot into a dark corner most similar to its natural habitat. |
Spooky or what
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blowin
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. I've just been onto google and all I can say is apols , I definitely stand corrected ! 
In my own defence I will add that I am more familiar with the fungi I can eat than the ones which might eat me .
Those things have more intelligence than some of the people I know . Probably more than me , too , because I was actually thinking of jelly mould which apparently doesn't exist at all . I must be loosing it completely !
( FYI the thing which does exist is Jelly Fungus -- looks like the jelly baby sweeties but is not edible ) .
Anyway by yet another complete stroke of what I used to call serendipity I actually found some for the first time today . Purely by chance while pricing a gardening job . I have pics almost identical to yours . Will post them up but it takes time on this landline .
Wierd stuff isn't it . I think those "bobbly" bits are the fruiting bodies ( can't remember their proper name ) . They seem to grow out of a layer of quite runny "jelly" which surrounds a relatively tough central core of the same stuff . The yellowing is due to decay . Those are my thoughts anyway .
It doesn't actually bite , BTW
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blowin
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Looks like the same thing ?
Haven't seen any others , just that one . I feel kind of bad about disecting it !
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Graney
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No apologies needed at all. Just pleased to have it confirmed. I thought it looked like the pictures I googled, but I'd just never come across it before, although I had a vague memory of being told about it in my A level biology.
I remember it being described as somewhere between a simple plant and a simple animal - reminds me of someone on East Enders but let's not go there
Being a John Wyndham and The Day of the Triffids fan at school it captured my imagination .... and it's taken me another 40 years to come across it in the flesh ... or should that be in the plant tissue?
Perhaps this year has just been particularly favourable for its growth and normally its just lurking there waiting to multiply
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blowin
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Makes you wonder , doesn't it !?
Nothing to do with the high level of radio-activity around here of course .
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blowin
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I would like to keep one of these things to see what it really can do . Perhaps you would let me know if you find one and are prepared to put it into a cigarette box or similar and post it to me ( I will refund ) ?
For those of you who know MOH personally I would rather you didn't mention this to her just yet . She was very good about the Darkling Beetles ( adult Mealworm ) which escaped in the house but wasn't too impressed with the midge in the deep-freeze so I had better train this slime mould a few tricks before I introduce it to her
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