View Full Version : What is it?
Kind of thought that i would stick this in this section (figure it was in the woods that we found them)
Does anyone know what this is? (the picture on this link - i did it to keep it big).
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rwill75552/myhomepage/photo.html
I found two of them with Nomad last week, during a well earned few days worth of woodland dossing/archerying in West Sussex. Cant find it in my books. They were kind of squishy - up until then they were looking at being big albino cramp balls :wink:
I think that the drops of liquid are a result of us poking it with a stick a couple of days before taking the picture.
the naughty boy
29-03-2004, 18:54
bizarre. didnt you cut it open and investigate? also how did you get your pics on the web?
its not a tunnocks tea cake thats melted ?
i,ll get my coat.
Looks like invasion of the body snatchers to me...!!! :shock:
(Hold up naughty boy, I'll get my hat! :wink:)
It does have something of the alien films about it - i must admit.
Didn't want to cut it about, as I had not seen one before - I have been using those woods for quite a few years now - and didn't want to be responsible for some kind of first contact alien autopsy guilt :oops:
It does have something of the alien films about it - i must admit.
Didn't want to cut it about, as I had not seen one before - I have been using those woods for quite a few years now - and didn't want to be responsible for some kind of first contact alien autopsy guilt :oops:
:rolmao:
Looks like some mutant polypore to me - cant find its likes in Roger Phillips. If you go back there Rob open it up - if the insides all white ect then I think it is a polypore. Remember that is only the friut of the fungi so maybe it was damaged and grew malformed.
Either that or ................ look a green flash coming from the surface of mars!
Just strange that there are 2 all of a sudden.
Maybe I will wrap my head in tin-foil to fend off the satellites and poke one of them with something a bit sharper next time I am down there.
:rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao:
You guys are cracking me up!
Rob, if you really want to know what it is, e-mail the pici to Mycology dept. at Kew, Mycology@rbgkew.org.uk telling them date seen, what it was growing on, type of woodland etc. If they can't identify it I don't know who can.
If you find out Rob let us all know the answer too!
Justin Time
30-03-2004, 21:45
hmmm, just wondering if it was made of silicon......
:o):
Now, now.
But I will spread the word once I get an answer :-)
Made of silicon - well if its an unknown species we can call it - Jordan's Bracket.
smoky mountain DNA yall, off topic, gary you like your wolves, did you see that programme about the yellowstone wolves the other night ?
Seen it several times - in fact I just completed an on-line theory course in wolf and wild life management and that was one of the reference works.
Brilliant. Why?
just wondered , i saw it and was blown away by it, what a project to work on,what a privelidge too
Anyone could do it - just search on line loads of centres do similar courses. Its a great way to explore the theory of many outdoor subjects and to get the old noodle ticking over. You just need to have the time too did it.
cool i`ll have a look, just offered my time to kent wildlife trust too fro volunteer work
Thats the way to do it - I do volunteer conversation work for the woodland trust and epping forest volunteers when I get time - gets you out doing some good and helps with the bushcraft training etc at the same time.
TheViking
05-06-2004, 14:33
Hey
I think its that box where a spider keeps his eggs until the small babyspiders comes out! :!: :?: :wink:
Andy
Vikingpower
Infragreen
14-01-2006, 04:09
It looks like a Fuligo Septica.
A Slime mold also known as (brace yourselves)...
Dog's Vomit (or Troll Butter etc.)
Not exactly a fungus and not exactly an animal, it can move about.
Topcat02
14-01-2006, 13:12
Yuck! Sounds disgusting
I did see some last year in the same wood, if they are there again this year I will spend a while poking and photographing - then we might get a positive ID :)
Cool, it's worth investigating....don't prod it too hard though, could be a big tree boil ;)
The mystery thickens, but hopefully with some more information about it.
I checked out Fuligo Septica but i dont think that it is that.
I have just been out in the woods to check on another couple that Mel and I have spotted in the last few days. To our surprise we have quite a few stages of its life on display in various places. I will go and take some pics tomorrow.
To start with, they look like the picture that I first posted. Next stage seems to be almost egg shell like (sometimes almost a blue tint). Then brown areas (the colour of quite a light cramp ball / drinking chocolate) start to appear from the base of the body - with patches slowly covering all the surface until it is all brown.
Final stage seems to be sporing. The entire body turns to the consistancy of very fine powdered drinking chocolate, holds shape and slowly blows away / gets knocked off.
Back tomorrow with some pics.
I was going to say it looked like someone had thrown their Bannock mix in fustration at not being able to get the fire going. Be interested to see your new pictures.
Ok. Some pics in the gallery with some links to them below - in age order from the stage of the first picture posted.
Going brown (http://www.bushcraftuk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=963&limit=recent)
Brown and starting to shed (http://www.bushcraftuk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=962&cat=504)
Shedding (http://www.bushcraftuk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=964&cat=504)
I think that this one is youger still. I will keep an eye on it and see what it does.
Younger? (http://www.bushcraftuk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=965&cat=504)
Ay more ideas?
I agree with Infragreen, looks like some type of slime mould. It could be Enteridium lycoperdon, this is what the 'Encyclopedia of Fungi of Britain & Europe' has to say:
" Comparatively large, cushion-like, whitish bodies with a somewhat rubbery feel, breaking down to reveal reddish-brown spore mass; on dead wood generally , though often still standing"
Here's a pic I found on the web:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b377/FraserMilne/Reticularialycoperdon.jpg
Described as "soft to the touch as if filled with fluid"