Slime Mold - Stemonitis axifera

Today, a handful of us went to do a repeat botanizing walk on a wonderful, forested property near Millarville, south west of Calgary. We saw all sorts of neat fungi and slime molds, as well as a good variety of wildflowers and birds. This tiny one, Stemonitis axifera, growing on a fallen log, was strange and quite beautiful when zoomed in on. Reminded me of brown "Sparklers". I haven't checked it out in large size, but it should be easier to see the details on the right, sharper clump. Thanks, Doug, for finding all sorts of neat things today - between you, you and David did an amazing job! Many thanks, too, to Mr. Handfield who so kindly allowed us to explore his property and accompanied us on our exploration. I'm sure we all learned some new things : )

"Slime mold is a broad term describing fungi-like organisms that use spores to reproduce. They were formerly classified as fungi, but are no longer considered part of this group.

Their common name refers to part of some of these organism's lifecycles where they can appear gelatinous (hence the name slime). However, this feature is mostly seen with the myxomycetes, which are the only macroscopic slime molds.

Slime molds have been found all over the world and feed on microorganisms that live in any type of dead plant material. For this reason, these organisms are usually found in soil, lawns, and on the forest floor, commonly on deciduous logs. In urban areas, they are found on mulch or even in the leaf mold in gutters. One of the most commonly encountered slime molds, both in nature in forests in the temperate zones of the earth as well as in classrooms and laboratories is the yellow Physarum polycephalum." From Wikipedia.