Wish I could tell you, but I haven't a clue...
Update: May possibly be a slime mold of the genus Stemonitis. Seems to most closely fit the description of Stemonitis splendens, aka Chocolate Tube Slime, aka Pipe-cleaner Slime, as given in our copy of the _National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms_.
8 comments:
I don't know either, but it sure is cool. :)
Not fruiting bodies of slime mold is it?
I am wildly guessing by the way, but it is pretty neat.
rurality, it is pretty cool...looked sort of like little alien landing craft ;)
FC, therein lies my problem...do I search under myxomycota for a match or is it some sort of fungus???
Swampie - I think fc is right - it's a slime mold fruiting body. I'd do a google image search under "slime mold" rather than fungus (slime molds are not technically fungi). Myxomycota may narrow it down a bit too much but you may still have a hit there.
Plasmodial slime molds or Cellular slime molds are the two major groups, and they are more closely related to animals than to fungi.
Very neat picture though! How big are they?
Wayne, thanks for the input. To answer your question about size, the total height was about 1.5 to 2 cm tall. Each individual little "pipe" was about 1 mm across. I should have collected some and dried it so I could get a positive ID...
thats the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Yes, it certainly looks like the photos of Stemonitis in my Aubdubon Mushroom Guide. The slime molds can make some very fanciful fruiting structures!
Slime molds intrigue me but I've not knowingly seen one yet. What ever this is, it is very interesting.
Post a Comment