Day 28: "From across a crowded room, she heard someone speak her name..." Well, not exactly. I was at the back of the line (the mushroom walk had about 20 attendees), thoroughly engrossed in explaining how to identify Usneas as a genus to one of the other participants, and the words "slime mold" caught my attention. Funny how the ear can pick out significant sounds among the noise. Immediately, I wove myself tabby-style through the group, passing one person on the left, the next on the right until I was at the head of the line where I saw someone holding a palm-sized piece of bark studded with tiny orange pins. It had been too long since my last slime mold hunt for me to recall the name on the spot, but it was one I'd seen before. Checking my blog at home quickly brought up Trichia decipiens, sometimes called "salmon eggs" for the colour (NB: the scientific name is under revision and may now be Hemitrichia). These cute little buggers are 2-3mm tall, and occur on both conifer and hardwood bark. Although we'd been out to learn more about mushrooms, a slime mold made my day.
No comments:
Post a Comment