(Badhamia utricularis)
Badhamia utricularis appears to have no common name, which is strange for a slime mould that can be found in so many parts of the world. If anyone out there knows of a common name, please let me know.
It is a species of slime mould in the family Physaraceae. As you walk around in our island forests, and if you look, you might see just the fruiting bodies hanging on the underside of deadwood of this slime mould. My son Robert was walking along the estuary shore of the Salmon River. He found, under the bank, hanging from roots, a good example of Badhamia Utricularis right at the beginning of fruiting.
He returned home to show me some photos, and I was very intrigued, to say the least. I followed him back out the following day to take a look. When Robert had spotted them, the fruiting bodies were a bright yellow, but by the time we arrived the next day, they were a dark orange with a few looking dark brown.
Slime moulds, at one time, were considered to be fungi but are now classified in the Protista kingdom. They will begin life as tiny amoeba-like organisms that search out bacteria to eat. If they are lucky enough to find a mate, they will produce plasmodia, which are slimy masses that can grow to a pretty large size, feeding on bacteria, yeasts, fungi, or dissolved nutrients. As they grow, they can move like giant amoebas. When their food source begins to wane, the plasmodium migrates to the surface of the mould and produces fruiting bodies. The fruiting bodies will go from yellow to orange and eventually will turn grey. At this stage, they release their spores that will then get carried away with the wind to start the whole process again.
Slime moulds have always fascinated me; they are practically alien. There are more than 900 species of them worldwide. They are all beautiful.