On a damp day just before Christmas, there were no water voles, kingfishers and certainly no otters. But there was something which in its own way is just as interesting and has a life cycle more complex and fascinating than most things that are found in the UK:
Attached to a grass stem is a Myxomycete, a plasmodial slime mould:
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Slime Moulds have featured on this blog before (back in July), but this one is different, identified as Mucilago crustacea - it doesn't have a common name (identified with the help of the excellent Wild About Britain forums):
This is a plasmodial slime mould, it starts life as single celled organisms (called a Myxamoeba), which move slowly consuming fungus spores, dead matter and bacteria.
When conditions are right and two myxamoeba meet, they join to form a zygote, which continues to grow, forming a plasmodium (a multi-nucleus cell), this in turn changes into a fruiting body (sporangium), which produces spores and the life cycle repeats itself:
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This stage will only last a few days and the fruiting body have almost certainly gone during Christmas itself.
I've said it before (and no doubt will say it again): who needs outer space when we have such varied and strange lifeforms right here on this planet. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteHi Ellen,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. It's amazing what bizarre life is just outside our own front doors. I've just bought a book on Lichen and they are amazing.....
Richard
A really fascinating organism neither animal nor plant nor fungus! It has a 'kingdom' of its own - protist.
ReplyDeleteWell done Richard, in spotting and identifying this strange life form
David Guyoncourt
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comment, they are truely amazing organisms.
Whilst it's great to see otters and badgers, finding something as unsual as this is just as rewarding. Especially as the sporangium is so short lived.
Richard