Weekend Surprise

    At the weekend I managed to get in another fungi hunt at Shouldham Warren. It was a day or two after we had steady rain for twelve hours so I was hoping to find something, in fact anything would have been nice.


   It was an early morning search and was nice and quiet when I arrived. I decided to explore another new part of the wood to see if it would be promising later in the summer and Im happy to say it does look an ideal area.

   While walking through one of the darker damp pieces of woodland I saw a bright yellow item ahead. Thinking it was litter I headed towards it to pick it up, but as I got closer I noticed it was looking like some kind fungus. It turned out to be my first example of Dog Vomit Slime Mold (fuligo septica) and what an example it was. Bright yellow, it almost glowed in the dark shade under the trees, I really believed it was a piece of litter or plastic as it was so bright in colour.


    This is a mold rather than a fungus but is still an interesting find for me. It loves moist shady areas and is mostly found in leaf litter, on rotting wood and mulch, my find was indeed growing on damp dead wood laying on the woodland floor.

   Well, this just goes to show that even when the conditions are against you and you are expecting to find nothing, the odd surprise can pop up. 

   

   

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