#physarum polycephalum

[myxomycota]

a Vitronura giselae springtail, feeding on Physarum polycephalum plasmodium

by Ben Gruver

[ravings-of-a-mad-scientist]

[blogbirdfeather]

Physarum polycephalum

Lisboa/Portugal (14/02/2024)

[Nikon Coolpix P900]

[microcosmicobservations]

I usually limit the numbers of photos I dump into one post but most of this summer Wisconsin has been in an extreme drought, and a week or so ago we got a bit of rain. Although it hasn't rained again since, many of the logs are still wet, so slime molds are still kicking, or at the very least I can find relatively fresh fruiting bodies. Anyway I found all these in my local woods today, in no particular order: Arcyria species (A. obvelata, A. denudata, A. cinerea), Stemonitis, Physarum polycephalum, Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, Lycogala epidendrum, maaaaybe Physarum viride, and maaaaaaybe Lamproderma. I am too excited not to dump them all at once. Enjoy!

[wtf-fun-factss]

A "smart slime" appears to have problem-solving abilities. Click to read the full fact.

[saprophytic-carnival]

Wild P. polycephalum colony I’ve been watching for several weeks was sporulating today!

I managed to snatch a sample of plasmodium from this population last week, before the Bright Sky Orb came out and told the slimes to go fuck themselves (pun intended) The little dude is still getting established right now, but if all goes well, I’ll be posting pictures pretty soon!

Until then… alien eggs.

Edit as of 4/14: excellent comment from Ferncube pointing out that this is actually Badhamia utricularis! Cross-reference your ID’s, kids! Don’t assume that the most common species is the species you’ve got, and don’t make conclusions based solely on plasmodium and growth habit if you have other tools available.

I’m not sure how many other times I’ve made this error, and while it’s not like anyone gets hurt by it, it’s GOING to annoy me. I might revive some sclerotium from Faraday and let the plasmodium sporulate, just to check. She was untrustworthy from the start.

[gwyndolinadmirer]

A while ago I made a physarum polycephalum simulator in webGL, so every now and again I play around with it and sometimes get some pretty screenshots & videos <3

[nesso-the-wyrm]

if there are gods, this is one of them