Day 204: There are some truly strange things out there in the woods, and if I hadn't gone exploring on my lunch break today despite the rain, I might never have found this ephemeral jewel. I'm not going out very far on the limb when it comes to making an identification because I'm clearly out of my depth. That said, I will make an informed guess (operative word being "guess") in defining this particular specimen as a species of Trichia, a Slime Mold, and possibly Trichia botrytis, or Orange Drops. Whatever it is, it looked for all the world to me like someone had stuck wads of orange-pink bubblegum all over a mossy, rotting log, colonies of the fungus occurring every few inches over an area approximately 1' x 3'. Needless to say, I called our Plant Ecologist out of his office to have a look, and the two of us poked and prodded it sufficiently to learn that it was very soft and gelatinous, and the interior was filled with a watery goo of the same colour. Arnie admitted he had no idea what it was beyond a slime mold. I will be attempting to find someone who can confirm or reject my tentative identification.
Footnote: My thanks go out to Angela Mele for identifying this as Lycogala epidendrum. She adds that it was "the first species of slime mold ever put into print, in the mid 1500's in a German herbarium."
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