Slime Mold in the Yard

I was looking out the window of the laundry room into the back yard to see if the neighborhood cat was around when I spotted something unusual--a slime mold! It appears to be growing out of a stump that has been there since before we moved here in 2002, but which has never before produced any kind of fungal fruiting much less a slime mold. There is more slime mold growing in some nearby leaves, so I'm not actually sure it began with the stump or maybe some leaves lying on top of the stump.

My neighbor, a retired landscape gardener at Golden Gate Park who's lived in his place since the 1960s, said he believes the stump was once a yew tree.

Virtually all of the leaves on the ground are from the neighbor's lilly pilly tree (native to Australia).

Crop 1

Crop 2

I'm almost sorry that we're heading out on a camping trip tomorrow since I won't get to watch the progress of this splendid myxomycete.

Is this Fuligo septica, a white fruiting of the commonly yellow "dog vomit" slime mold, or maybe Enteridium lycoperdon, the false puffball?

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Lassen in July

Lake Helen (compare with June).

Bumpass Hell

Cinder Cone & Painted Dunes

Buckwheat in the Painted Dunes

Variegated Meadowhawk

Dot-tailed Whiteface

Rock Wren

Lewis's Monkey Flower

Aster

Lupine

Lemmon's Paintbrush

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Klamath Basin

About twenty years ago this month, a group of farmers in the Klamath Basin opened a sluice gate to protest water being used for the benefit of wildlife. They were soon shut down by federal marshals. The image above seems like a nice reminder that nature deserves water rights too. These are some photos from a July 2007 trip to see the Klamath Basin in the summer.

Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) with Chicks.

White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)

Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)

Eight-spotted Skimmer (Libellula forensis)

Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala)

I don't recall what the actual air temperature was, but I remember being instantly drenched in sweat when I stepped out of my air-conditioned car to check out this marsh. I'd never experienced such a humid heat in California before.

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