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| Honeycomb Slime Mold, Mt. Tamalpais |
It's also called coral slime (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa), as I learned thanks to iNaturalist. Until reading up on this species I hadn't realized there are three classes of slime molds. I thought they were all Myxomycetes, but there's also Dictyostelids and Protosteloids like the honeycomb slime. Most of the latter class are microscopic and are found almost by chance: You collect some substrate (dead plant matter), put in on an agar plate, and after a few days put the plate under a compound microscope to see what grew.
I found this slime during a short hike on Mt. Tam on Saturday. I'd forgotten that the Sound Summit (formerly the Mt. Tam Jam) was happening that day, so I had to park below Rock Spring and hope my car wouldn't get hemmed in. Thankfully it did not, and I finished my 2.5-hour hike well before the show got started.
In addition to bringing along the FZ80D, I also carried my D800E with a 105mm macro lens, which is how I got the slime mold photo. Instead of carrying a tripod I relied on the on-camera flash to get a workable shutter speed. I'd been thinking about switching to a mirrorless camera system for its lighter weight (than the DSLR), greater resolution (than the FZ), and other factors, but I was hesitant to spend the money even before the new tariffs went into effect. Now I'm just going to stick with what I've already got.
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| Honeycomb Slime on Douglas Fir Along the Mickey O'Brien Trail |
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| Fog on the North Side from Laurel Dell Road Near Barth's Retreat |
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| Island in the Fog |
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| One of three does who spooked at my approach while they were browsing along the Laurel Dell fire road. |
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| Poison Oak Turning Color at Potrero Camp |
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| When this European mantis (Mantis religiosa) fluttered into view, it looked a lot like the katydid I recently saw in the Chicago area -- a gossamer, silent mystery on the wind. It took a minute to find where it landed, even with its green coloration on a background of dried grasses near Rifle Camp. |
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| The smell of rosinweed is still strong and pleasant on the mountain, but the flowers are just about done for the season. |
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| The fence lizard ducked into a hole along the Benstein Trail the first time I passed, so I waited for it to come back out. |
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