Is this Physarum album

[Wood Wanderer]

Hi all

Found this yesterday growing in profusion on very damp herbaceous debris, quite small at less than 1mm high, initially whitish but turning quickly to black.

My knowledge of Myxos is very limited but I wondeer if this could be Physarum album

Any thoughts out there …

[attachment=1]DSC_0026-001.JPG[/attachment]

[attachment=2]DSC_0023.JPG[/attachment]

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Regards

John

[Lancashire Lad]

It has the right general looks John, much like my pic, below, but at less than 1mm is definitely on the small side, and in my experience, P.album doesn’t generally go black before dehiscing. – It generally stays grey, dehiscing by breaking into ± petaloid lobes.

There are other similar ones, so as for most things – microscopy would be the order of the day to be completely certain.

Regards,

Mike.

[attachment=0]Physarum album (2).jpg[/attachment]

[Waxcap]

I would agree with Mike about the size. Also, P. album sporocarps are noted as “often flattened and nodding” which is how I would describe those in Mike’s photo whereas yours are nicely globose.

There is a key here http://www.myx.dk/dk/dkgenphy.html” class=”bbcode_url”>http://www.myx.dk/dk/dkgenphy.html but, as is often the case, you will need a microscope to look at most of the features required by the key.

Dave

[Wood Wanderer]

Thanks Mike and Dave for your useful hints as you both say it is not possible to get much further without microscopy …

Out of interest I re-measured the sample I collected and noted that in fact they are closer to 2 mm than 1 mm in height not that it helps much, still at least I had the correct genus of myxo …

[attachment=0]DSC_0035-001.JPG[/attachment]

John

[Marja]

Hi Wanderer,

sorry, this may depress you, but this can be a Didumium species, too.

The photos do not show, weather there is lime inside or not…

Both Physarum and Didymium belong to Physarales, where this belongs surely.

Marja

[Author]

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