Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: slime mold

Because I posted several photos from this important trip several days ago, I was thinking that I would be able to go back and copy/paste the description that I wrote for those first few images. When I checked, I remembered that I had been too busy to write anything at the time, so I have to start from scratch for today's posts. It's nearly lunch time and I haven't had breakfast yet, so I think I need to eat first, type second. Will be back .... NOTE: all these photos were taken deep in a wonderful, old forest without sunshine. I had been hoping that it would be bright and sunny, as I know from experience, trying to photograph fungi on an overcast day tends to result in less than sharp images. We were lucky, though, that we only had bits of rain. Also, I need to wait for the IDs for all the fungi - our friend, Karel, is the one with a lot of knowledge on this subject.

When I was editing this photo late last night, I happened to notice something that I had not seen at the time I took the photo. Right above the largest mushroom, you can see some tiny brown "tentacles". I am guessing that these are a slime mold. These six images are the last ones taken that day. Three afternoons ago, on 21 July 2019, I decided to make a short visit to a forest area to check for any fungi. We have had so much rain the last few weeks, so I felt hopeful. However, the rain has made the plants and grasses grow well, but I didn't find much in the way of fungi. This was about the 'best' I could find. In fact, apart from a pair of pale brown, non-photogenic mushrooms, these were the only mushrooms I found. As it was a Sunday afternoon, there were quite a few people in the area, so I felt brave enough to venture a little way into the forest itself. The trails were wet and muddy in many places, making all the exposed tree roots slippery. Quite treacherous, in fact. In one spot, I managed to get my right shoe wedged in between two horizontal roots and it took a bit of effort to work it free. Was it worth going? Not really, especially as far as fungi go, but I did get some much-needed fresh air and exercise. There were a few butterflies, mainly White Admirals, and the wildflowers were the usual ones such as Purple/Water Avens, which I love to see at all stages, and Sticky Purple Geranium and Richardson's Geranium.

Flickr has had/is still having problems today with views stats and photos not being seen on other people's Contacts page. Glad I'm not the only one, but it's still annoying. Posting this poor quality telemacro photo just for the record. Four days ago, on 14 July 2017, it was a hot day, but our bio-blitz of the Rusty Bucket Ranch, west of Calgary, started at 8:00 am, to catch the coolest part of the day. This was the first time we had been there and we had such a great morning. What a beautiful place and area! Thirteen of us gathered to explore part of the land belonging to Liz and Alan Breakey - 160 acres, mostly wooded, with many streams feeding into Bragg Creek. The gorgeous garden itself was full of bright, healthy plants. Once we were in the forest, we came across all sorts of wildflower species and even a few fungi and slime molds, including this tiny, pink Wolf's Milk slime mold. We all met the challenges of small, hidden logs along the trail, lying in wait to trip anyone who was not paying careful attention. One of the last areas was a bog, where the small, partly hidden pools of water were difficult or impossible to avoid - I nearly lost a shoe in there, lol! On the final stretch back to the house, we caught sight of a distant buck with its new growth of antlers; also, a few of the sheep that the Breakeys raise. A really fun walk for us all, with all sorts of things of interest. Many thanks to Liz and Alan for inviting us to the Rusty Bucket Ranch to explore and list all species seen! Thank you, too, for the very warm welcome you gave us, and for the muffins, delicious lemon drink, and coffee! After the morning's hike, we all returned to the city and thoroughly enjoyed a BBQ lunch put on by our botany/birding friends, Dorothy and Stephen. I hadn't had a burger in years - and this one was so good! Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for all the time and effort you put into this. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon, chatting with friends and eating all sorts of 'goodies'. Happy to see the tiny Hummingbird that has been visiting your garden, and lovely to see the bright yellow American Goldfinch. It was quite windy, too, which felt wonderful on a hot day.

This is a macro shot of this interesting slime mold. The small, orange or pink, textured "balls" can be somewhere around a quarter of an inch across, though some are a bit larger and some smaller. "Lycogala epidendrum, commonly known as wolf's milk, groening's slime is a cosmopolitan species of plasmodial slime mould which is often mistaken for a fungus. The aethalia, or fruiting bodies, occur either scattered or in groups on damp rotten wood, especially on large logs, from June to November. These aethalia are small, pink to brown cushion-like globs. They may excrete a pink paste if the outer wall is broken before maturity. When mature, the colour tends to become more brownish. When not fruiting, single celled individuals move about as very small, red amoeba-like organisms called plasmodia, masses of protoplasm that engulf bacteria, fungal and plant spores, protozoa, and particles of non-living organic matter through phagocytosis." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycogala_epidendrum This photo was taken on 6 August 2016, when I went on a mushroom foray at Rod Handfield's acreage. Though this was a fungi day (well, morning), we also came across a few wildflower species, too. I found the whole day physically and mentally exhausting (a mix of excitement and stress). It was a great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as Rod's forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful treasures. It is one of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. 2016 turned out after all to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we had in the summer. Last year had such weird weather - a very mild, dry winter (2015/2016), a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and then a wet, thundery summer. We met up with a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there (or one of the last), maybe four years ago (17 August 2010, so six years ago - how time flies!), we had seen a beautiful Amanita muscaria / Fly agaric mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the hike. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot on this day, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this hallucinogenic, poisonous species, including ones that were at a younger stage. The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us! I have to admit that I always find a walk like this rather frustrating. It doesn't work too well when you have people who are photographers and people who are interested in picking mushrooms to eat : ) The latter tend to always be ahead and by the time you catch up to them, you can't see what has already quickly been picked and of course it is usually difficult or impossible to get a photo. This was private land and some of us know the owner, Rod Handfield. In places like the national or provincial parks, one is not allowed to remove anything from the area - but some people still do. You see people with large baskets full of mushrooms picked for cooking! This is especially an east European 'thing'. They have grown up with this tradition and seem to know which fungi are edible or not. Some poisonous mushrooms can look very similar to edible ones, which is why the warning is to never, ever eat any kind of fungus unless you are an expert! As our local Naturalist always says: "All fungi are edible, some only once!" Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. I had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. A huge learning curve when going from a 1999 car to a 2016 vehicle, but I am so thankful to have reliable transportation!

Apologies for the very poor quality of this photo! I don't know if anyone is able to ID this slime mold from this photo. Maybe Arcyria obvelata (syn Arcyria nutans) / golden slime mold? All three photos posted this morning were taken during a trip to Plateau Mountain yesterday, 28 September 2016. This third photo is a very poor macro shot of a very interesting slime mold that one of the group had found elsewhere, not on Plateau Mountain, but had brought it along to show us. I will have to get the name for it again. Seems to be an amazingly clever slime mold : ) Has such a fine, intricate netting, that you can just about see in the photo. Wish I hadn't photographed it on something blue, though. Unfortunately, the slime mold had dried out a lot, despite being kept in a plastic container, and the actual colour was a much deeper yellow than seen in my photo. Couldn't get a closer colour in post-processing. We were told all about this slime mold, and it works in a very clever, 'intelligent' way. I have been lucky enough to visit this special area several times in the past, but wondered if I would ever be able to get back to one of my absolute favourite places. There are two gates across this road - the lower one always seems to be open, but the second, higher gate is always kept locked. This means a long hike up the gravel road seen in this photo. Took me a while to make up my mind whether to go on this trip, as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to manage it - my body just can't do anything uphill, even just a very slight incline. Also, I had read someone's report recently - they had been there maybe five days before us and had said that, up till the day they went, a female Grizzly and her two cubs had been hanging out there for 10 days! They didn't see the bears, but noticed all the many places where the bears had pushed over rocks and ripped up the ground to look for plant roots, etc.. Seeing all these digging sights was still unnerving enough! We also saw several bear paw prints in the gravel along this road. My main concern was that I would have to fall back and let my friends continue. The thought of being by myself and seeing a family of Grizzlies had been enough to keep me awake part of the previous night and I even broke into a sweat worrying about it, lol. However, I have very thoughtful friends, and we stayed pretty much together. These friends were there to look for mosses, lichens and liverworts - plus anything else of interest - so they don't walk at a fast pace and are always stopping to look at something. This suits my ability perfectly. We were, of course, too late for wildflowers, though there were a lot of False Dandelions in bloom. We also came across quite a few fungi, most of them the same kind of very small, brown fungus. We did see one or two other kinds that were worth photographing. Because of stopping so often, we ran out of time to continue hiking this road as far as the very top, flat plateau - I would have had to stay behind if they had gone further. The lower plateau is where most of my visits have taken place, but I think I have been right to the very top twice, maybe three times, before. Almost every visit other years had been in the month of July. In fact, the last part of the hike yesterday was over ground that was very similar to the very top plateau, including some permafrost 'boils'. Birds seen on this trip included a tiny Wren of some kind, a few small flocks of unidentified birds flying fast, and a falcon (Prairie falcon?). "This nearly flat high-elevation plateau is recognized for several unique features. There is an internationally recognized ice cave with ice crystals, curls, sheets and pillars (ice crystals are so fragile that a temperature increase of one degree Celsius can cause melting). The periglacial features (known as "patterned ground") in the reserve include active permafrost, sorted stone circles, polygons, steps and frost boils. The area also contains critical winter range for bighorn sheep." From www.albertaparks.ca/plateau-mountain.aspx There are no public roads in Plateau Mountain Ecological Reserve; the road to the mountain top is leased by Husky Oil; to prevent vandalism to natural gas production facilities and to lessen impact on the area's natural features, access is controlled by the locked gate; travel in the reserve is by foot only; there are no facilities on site and overnight camping and open fires are prohibited." www.albertaparks.ca/media/2741526/plateau_mtn_mgmt_plan.pdf Thanks so much, Sandy, for organizing this wonderful trip and getting us out there! Not sure, but I think the last time I was out there was in August 2012. Major flood damage had kept the roads closed after that, so it was very exciting to know that someone else had discovered that the roads were now OK for travel. We were so lucky with the weather and only had a few raindrops. Rather chilly, but October is almost here, so hardly surprising. I think the temperature was between 2C and 4C, approximately. I was wearing thermal underwear, jeans, two fleece jackets and my thick winter jacket, and my winter boots! Many thanks, too, to Ken, for the ride from and back to Calgary - much appreciated! A long drive, but through such beautiful scenery.

Slime Molds are so difficult to see, often no more than a very small, coloured smear on a log, so I was very happy when I actually found this one when I spent a bit of time at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, SW of Calgary, on 4 August 2012. Needless to say, a macro shot. There were disappointingly few fungi that I found in the forest that day, compared to two and three years ago.

I know, it's "just" a slime mold (supermacro shot) showing different stages of development of the Plasmodium and honeycomb fruiting bodies of the slime mold Ceratiomyxa porioides (?, thanks Doug/RIP) - but I was so thrilled to see this when a few of us were lucky enough to visit Spirit Rocks Sanctuary, way back on 26 June 2011. Joanne Susut inherited this land, which she has named Spirit Rocks Sanctuary, from her parents and has donated it to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. It was about two and a half hours' drive north of Calgary, to near Rimbey. The day started off with rain and ended with rain, but luckily not a drop fell while we were walking. Four of us went from Calgary and we met up with three delightful and very knowledgable ladies there. Thanks so much, Joanne, for letting us explore your land - we appreciated it greatly and enjoyed spending this time with you and your friends. (I don't have the exact location to add to my map, so have just marked Rimbey, Alberta, mainly just to remind myself where it is).

A macro shot of Wolf's Milk Slime growing on a rotting lot, taken on 23 June 2011, at Griffith Woods. This beautiful pink slime mold is widely distributed in North America and occurs June-November. The balls are 0.3-1.5 cm wide and high.

Slime Molds are so difficult to see, often no more than a very small, coloured smear on a log, so I was very happy when I actually found this one when I spent a bit of time at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on 4 August 2012. Needless to say, a macro shot. Sorry about all the fungi shots I'm posting - I'd happily add some bird photos, but I'm just not getting out there to see any birds!

This is a very tiny slime mold that was growing on moss at Rod Handfield's (near Millarville) on August 13th. I don't know if it is Physarum rubiginosum or Physarum lateritium - or something else. A lovely splash of colour amongst all the greens of the forest.

LOL, not a very inspiring photo, but I was fascinated when I saw the pattern on these extremely tiny slime molds,with their "weak and prostrate" stalks (thanks, Doug!). I would never find slime molds like this on my own. So many of them look no more than a very small, coloured "brush-stroke" on a rotting log. However, when I happen to be following the footsteps of friend, Doug (dougwaylett), I know I can be so lucky. I just don't know how he finds them, LOL. This is a supermacro of this almost-invisible-to-the-naked-eye slime mold. Seen on Rod Handfield's acreage, near Millarville, south west of Calgary. Thanks to Doug (dougwaylett) for the ID: Badhamia utricularis!

This was little more than an orange smear on a branch in the forest at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on 14th August. Though it was too late to catch these little guys still upright on their little white stalks, I guess I did catch them "sliming", LOL. A supermacro shot, needless to say, that leaves a bit to be desired as far as clarity : ) Loved the vibrant colours, though. Thanks, as always, Doug, for finding this slime mold (and many other things!). Without your expertise, I would never see things like this.

A white slime mold growing on the leaves of a Bunchberry plant in the forest at West Bragg Creek. Seen on 22nd August last year.

Not a very appetizing sight, LOL, but it was great to see this bright yellow slime mold growing on the forest floor "litter" on 29th August, on the Fullerton Loop trail, Kananaskis.

Thanks so much again, Jim, for an ID - Slime Mold. Having to use my flash has lightened the colour a little, but it was such a beautiful colour. Purely by chance, I caught sight of a tiny splash of orange on the end of an old, fallen log and was delighted to see all these VERY tiny pinhead spots of colour. Not as sharp as I would have liked, but you still get an idea of what it is.