Slime Moulds at Spier's Old School Grounds
4 November, 2011
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Tapioca slime mould flowing over a tree stump
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Wolf's Blood slime mould
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Gateside Primary pupils with a Puffball slime mould
In the autumnal wet weather a strange, you might even say alien sight, may catch your eye at Spier's - slime moulds.
Yellow, pink, or pure white these organisms have been mistaken for alien organisms under the heading of the phenomenon known as 'Star Jelly'. They have odd names, such as Tapioca, Wolf's Blood, and even Dog's Vomit!
These strange life-forms are not fungi, belonging instead to the single celled Amoeba group. Some are very large, and spread out across grass or wood, slowly moving to seek out food and pulsating like a human heartbeat pulse. A few glow with bioluminescence, others hide from light, and many form complex and otherwordly shapes, completely at home in any science fiction film.
Scientists study them as they show signs of animal intelligence, being able to quickly find food in a maze and they exhibit the ability to learn! Some exist as tiny individuals that flow and join together when food runs short, others are essentially one enormous cell with many thousands of nuclei. If cut up they locate each other and fuse together again.
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