Scrambled egg or dog vomit slime.
By green_finger
13 comments
Found this on my raised bed yesterday & thought you might find it interesting.
Don’t panic, it’s utterly harmless to people, pets and plants. In fact, Fuligo septica is edible apparently native people in some parts of Mexico gather it and scramble it like eggs (I don’t fancy trying it tho). I hear they call this dish “caca de luna,” which I’ll leave you to translate.
It isn’t a fungus/mould,plant, animal or bacteria. It’s a plasmodium which essentially is one giant cell with millions of nucleii. It is formed when two spores come together in something a little bit like sex and begin dividing into a large creeping blob of protoplasm surrounded by a single membrane.
The plasmodium moves by slowly flowing or streaming, gradually engulfing and consuming fungi and bacteria that are present on decaying plant matter.
It eventually moves out to a more exposed location on top of mulch, pine straw, a stump, a low-growing plant, or even the foundation of a building. There it stops moving and transforms into a fruiting (spore-producing) body.
This is when Fuligo septica first gets noticed as a bright yellow, frothy mass a few inches to up to a foot in diameter.
It quickly fades to a dull orange and then a light tan as its surface dries to a crust.
After a few days it breaks apart to release its dark-coloured spores, which blow away to start the life cycle anew.
Within a week or two, all that’s left is a dusting of leftover spores and bits of grey or yellowish crust.
Here’s some pics:
And then when conditions are right it will appear again somewhere.
- 6 Jul, 2015
- 6 likes
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Comments
Yuk ! I haven't had my breakfast yet ! At least I will know what it is if I see it now !
7 Jul, 2015
?
7 Jul, 2015
I was pretty alarmed when I first saw it too!
7 Jul, 2015
Don't fancy that at all!
7 Jul, 2015
Me neither, Steragram, but now I know it's harmless I'm watching it's stages with interest.
8 Jul, 2015
Very interesting, although I am not interested in eating it. I did a Google translate on the Mexican name. Made me chuckle.
8 Jul, 2015
Interesting, although not very nice to look at. I wonder what it tastes like, but I don't really feel like trying ...
8 Jul, 2015
we had this about 10 yrs ago and at first I thought my then 7yr old had got her hands on the builders foam stuff. It dries hard too.
15 Jul, 2015
A first for me, at least I will know what it is should it ever appear here...
21 Oct, 2015
A first for me too & quite a shock when it suddenly appears.
21 Oct, 2015
That I can imagine...
24 Oct, 2015
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Ugh! Enough to pu me off my breakfast ?
so pleased its harmless!
7 Jul, 2015