SLIME MOULDS

TUBIFERACEAE

False Puffball Enteridium lycoperdon is one of the more noticeable slime moulds at the reproductive stage because its white aethalium can measure up to 10cm across. They often appear on standing dead deciduous trees or fallen branches during spring. Initially white and spongy the fruiting body hardens and darkens then disintegrates to release a mass of brown spores. Synonym: Reticularia lycoperdon.

Wolf's Milk Lycogala terrestre is a common slime mould with salmon pink or creamy-white (but never red) plasmodium. The sporocarps (5-20mm) are found on old deciduous stumps and logs especially oak. Young sporocarps feel spongy and the centres are initially soft. They contain millions of tiny unicellular organisms. If squeezed they burst open revealing a pus-like fluid (a bit like a spot being squeezed).  Mature balls darken and turn hard before cracking open to release spores.

Tubifera ferruginosa has cylindrical sporangia that are closely pressed together resting on a white spongy structure made from non-cellular parts of the plasmodium. The sporocarps turn brown and disintegrate to release brown-powdery spores which are dispersed by the wind.

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