Halloween horror?

It being Halloween, I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about something spooky spotted on the reserve over the weekend. A slime mould.

What is a slime mould? Sounds a bit yucky, maybe something fungal... Well at one point in time they were classified as fungi, but these day they are considered to be quite different, quite unlike anything else.. They also have behaviour that would be right at home in a horror movie.

Initially slime moulds exist as single cells. They are scattered everywhere, feeding off bacteria which they absorb into themselves. But if food is scarce, or it is time to reproduce, something happens. They start to come together, to form a single slimey body, which then moves with a common purpose. You can even split up this body and the two bits will head back towards each other and recombine. Large ones will sometimes divide themselves, and the two bits go off on their separate ways. Alternatively two small ones might combine to make a larger one. Faced with adverse conditions, such as too high or low a temperature, the slime can go dormant. It then wakes up again when conditions are better. They have even been shown to learn and predict regular bouts of unfavourable conditions, and start preparing even before the change happens. Rather advanced for something that doesn't have a brain!

Eventually the slime creates stalks with give off spores. These then drift through the air, spreading a new generation of the single celled organisms across the land. Ready to start all over again.They particularly like places where bacteria and actual moulds are common. Compost heaps for example. Or plugholes in your house....

Anyway, the sighting that prompted this was of the delightfully named 'dog sick slime mould'. The scientific name is Mucilago crustacea, translating as 'crusty slime', if my Latin is any good. It does look a bit like a dog has been ill, with yellow spongy mass, which later goes white and then hardens.

It was spotted by a sharp-eyed visitor, on the grass by the path around the reedbed. it just shows how much wildlife is out there, in many different forms. Come and have a look to see what you can find. And don't have nightmares!