Dog Vomit Slime Mold and Chicken-of-the-Woods fungi

While I haven't posted since early January, I do have a work diary filled with scribbles of topics I've wanted to write about. I have barely processed the trauma of 2022 and here I am eating the frog (more on this in another post) in 2023. I'll get to them.

That said, the past two weeks have yielded two recent gems that are too good not to be posted and saved here.

The first is a find of a magnificent 'Dog Vomit Slime Mold', and the second is a recent foraging find of 'Chicken of the Woods' fungus.

Dog Vomit Slime Mold (Fuligo septica)

Two weeks ago, I was out with the dogs on the trails in the evening when a bright patch of yellow on a log to the side of the trail caught my eye. Oh my heart - fresh Dog Vomit Slime Mold (Fuligo septica) aka scrambled egg slime. I've seen it before but never such a big patch. I got some nice photos, which I uploaded to iNaturalist. 

It looks structured but is soft to touch and will smoosh - like milktart.

The next evening, I ran the weekly GTR Timetrial. The route passes the slime mold log so I took the opportunity to photograph it again. The change in 24 hours was incredible. 

The yellow is the plasmodium stage and 24hr later it is an aethalium, in the
spore-bearing stage. I didn't try it, but apparently this aethalium is dry
and brittle, and breaking it open exposes millions of
dry, dusty spores.

Where the yellow is the scrambled-egg stage, the dry, brown form is the dog vomit stage.

I checked yesterday, two weeks after first seeing it. The logs were recently disturbed but there is still not a trace of it now.

Something I have not yet seen is the fruiting body of a slime mold. But this guy, photographer Barry Webb, has and he shares his images of slime mold fruiting bodies on his website. Take a few minutes to enjoy the magnificence and beauty of these structures, most of which are 1 - 4mm high. They're tiny. 

Slime molds are something special. They are not fungi. They are not amoeba. But they move amoeba-like when they are in the single-celled plasmodium stage - the yellow form that caught my eye. It is incredible to think that this yellow mass is a single-celled organism with only a cell membrane to keep nuclei and protoplasm in. It moves (at around 1mm/hour) in search of food, which it engulfs like an amoeba and then digests. It also engulfs bacteria, spores of fungi and plants, protozoa, and particles of nonliving organic matter. This is a timelapse video of one in motion.

And then, it stops creeping, and converts into a spore-bearing structure called an aethalium, which I saw 24hrs later. Incredible.

Interesting. Thank you internet.

This slime mold is not edible but it is also not toxic.

Slime molds are 'clever' (watch this video on YouTube about how smart slime mold are). In Merlin Sheldrake's book, Entangled Life, the section on slime molds is captivating.


Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus)

On Sunday evening I ran the new GTR FKT route for February and on the Indigenous Traverse section (my favourite trail in the area) I found... the Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) fungus. I've seen it a few times before but usually older specimens. I have been waiting to find a young one to forage for months.

Chicken of the Woods is so named because it tastes like... chicken. The texture is similar too.

Laetiporus means 'with bright pores', which it does have. 

 
L. sulpherus is a fan-shaped polypore (it has pores underneath to release spores, not gills) fungus that grows shelf-like in overlapping tiers. It is very easy to identify from its shape, moist-and-rubbery structure and also the distinctive sulphur-yellow colour of younger specimens. I was delighted. I picked some to take home to cook.

My 'Chicken of the Woods' culinary explorations included three dishes.

On Sunday evening: fresh from the woods, I tested a taste of sautéed 'Chicken of the Woods', which was much like pan-fried chicken strips in taste, appearance and texture.

Monday night:  I made Fried Chicken of the Woods in a light flour-egg-flour batter with cayenne pepper and paprika in the flour. That turned out well.

Tuesday night: a Sicilian Chicken of the Woods dish - onions, tomato, dash of garlic and chilli, and finished with a splash of cream, served on crusty ciabatta with a sprinkle of parmesan, served with a cabbage, cucumber and red pepper salad with a herb-yoghurt dressing.

Photos don't do these dishes justice - loadshedding lighting-by-headlamp.

Finding fungi can be hit and miss so depending on type of wood, temperature, rainfall... I'll be lucky to find young Chicken of the Wood again any time soon.

Two great finds. 

Big fungi find today and City Nature Challenge 2022

It has been slow on the fungi-finding front these past few months with occasional sightings of interesting things - above the normal split gills, cinnabar brackets and the like, which are present year-round.

Today, I scored.

We did a Vagabond social outpaddle this morning on the Touws River in Wilderness. The top end of the river connects with the Half-Collared Kingfisher Trail, which I've done twice. Near the kayak stop, I remembered seeing jelly fungi in the area, so I went to take a look.

OMG! So many wood ear fungus. An explosion. Magnificent. In the same spot there were a number of other fungi, most of which I knew or recognised.

Then, this evening I took the dogs out. The overcast morning had turned into a magnificent afternoon - cool and clear. We took a trail up through the forest and all along this one I found hundreds of fungi. I have never before seen so many individuals. The abundance was incredible. They looked to mostly be pine ring (Lactarius deliciosa), which is edible. I'm not 100% sure of the identification but it is the most likely. 

Further up I found one of my favourites - sticky bun (I love the dough-like texture of the cap) and then more and more others. The poor dogs had to be patient.

The annual City Nature Challenge 2022 on iNaturalist comes up from 29 April to 2 May and marks one year since I discovered iNaturalist and almost a year since I discovered the world of fungi, which are abundant here on my doorstep in the forests around George. I've learned an incredible amount this past year and I know that I've barely covered an ice crystal in an iceberg of what there is still to learn. 

For the City Nature Challenge, I'll log observations of items other than fungi and aim to expand my species count and my general knowledge of what is out here. I'll be aiming to find items that I've never seen before so that I have fresh species identifications on my iNaturalist log.

The iNaturalist app is great for quickly uploading from your phone. I like to use the browser version on my laptop when I'm searching to identifications.

The City Natural Challenge is a global initiative. There are many regions in Southern Africa that participate so become a citizen scientist and hop on board.

Of course, observations can be logged throughout the year, and not just in this one week. But take care... It is addictive (in a good way, of course).

Finding fungi again

 The realm of fungi is looking more interesting again after a bit of a lull with no significant finds for me for a while. We've had rain, so things are damp, and temperatures are climbing. This seems to be a good formula for fungi to fruit.

A few weeks ago I did the Kingfisher Trail in Wilderness and I scored in jelly fungus finds. Until then I'd only every found the bright yellow fan-shaped jelly fungus. On this one outing I saw the bright yellow Witch's Butter, White Jelly Fungus, possibly Snow Fungus and two separate gatherings of Jelly Ear fungus.

Tremella mesenterica  - Witch's Butter

About a week after these finds, I was out on my usual trails when I found a collection of litter next to a log. I've picked up stuff here often, probably because people sit on the log, eat junk foods, drink energy drinks in cans and leave their rubbish behind. It makes me see red. I picked up the trash. And moved the log to prevent other litter bugs from sitting here. My efforts were rewarded with finding a jelly fungus (maybe two different ones!) on the log and a coal fungus (Daldinia concentrica probably) on the stump behind me, which I wouldn't have seen if I hadn't been hefting the heavy log.

I have a thing for the coal fungus because of the first one I found, which I kept an eye on over a period of 2-3 weeks. I really wasn't sure what it was until it matured, burst and lay on the ground looking like a piece of coal with concentric rings that I was able to identify it. When I was putting out the checkpoint flags two weeks ago for the Find It Checkpoint Challenge, I saw a bunch along the one trail. I was chasing sunset and too much in a hurry to stop and photograph. I went out this past week to find them. I found those and more in about a 15km stretch. My eyes seem to quite tuned to spotting this un-eye-catching fungus that looks like a brown lump on logs.

Daldinia concentrica - aka King Alfred's cake* or coal fungus. Matured and finished ones look like lumps of coal.  *According to legend, King Alfred once hid out in a countryside homestead during war, and was put in charge of removing baking from the oven when it was done. He fell asleep and the cakes burned. (from Wiki)

I tend to bring bits home with me, leave them on a shelf for a few days, see what they do and then toss them into my YOLO Compost Tumbler. The one coal fungus that I brought home on Wednesday began shedding spores and made two awesome spore prints.

On Wednesday, I also found another Jelly Ear Fungus. I do like them because they're quirky and some look quite like an ear! 

Auricularia auricula-judae. Also known as jelly ear or wood ear. Gotta love fungi names.

This jelly fungus has a great texture - soft, pliable and jelly-like. When it comes to fungi, it is hard not to have favourites. Jelly ears are right up there for me together with the stinkhorns. These are edible (they taste like nothing) and are used in Chinese dishes, like soups, for their jelly texture.

What I love about fungi is that they are always around, even if it is some 'boring' varieties. Finding any fungi is a bit hit-and-miss because you can walk a route today and there is nothing there but tomorrow they may be in abundance and then gone the next day as many fruiting bodies are short lived. There are also so many different types. For me, there is always something new because I'm a beginner at finding and identifying fungi. 

I'm quite sure that I miss a lot because 1) I move quickly and 2) I'm on trails. If I spent time scratching around and under logs, I'd probably find a lot more - especially tiny fungi, of which there are thousands. The vegetation here is such that you can't go offtrail so pretty much everything that I find is to the sides of trails. I'm sure that there are some gems lying just out of sight and deep in parts of the forests here.

Finding fungi doesn't get boring. I'm looking forward to see what this summer brings.

Fun fungi names

Many fungi have fitting names that match their shape, texture, colour or application. This makes it easier to remember their names.

I found this 'shroom on Saturday afternoon.

The cap feels a bit sticky and spongy - much like bread dough. I show it to my mom and say to her, "Feel the cap. It feels like bread dough".

I get home and look it up in my fungus book, "Field guide to mushrooms & other fungi of South Africa". It is a bolete type of fungus Suillus luteus -  a mushroom with a fleshy cap that has tubes instead of gills and the tubes open to the surface underneath the cap as pores that release the spores.

It goes by the common names of Slippery Jack and... (this one comes as no surprise) Sticky Bun!

I made a spore print from it.

The ripple effect is because my laminator chewed it up and scrunched it as it was going through.
haha haha

Where the pores were closer to the sheet of paper, the print is more defined. Less defined where even the lightest breeze could disturb the print.

Of interest, this one is edible - " one of the better edible sticky caps". I'm not much into foraging mushrooms for eating (too risky!) - just for photographing and discovering.

My first 'pet' Aseroe rubra (Anemone Stinkhorn fungus)

A week ago (Sun 16 May) , I found an 'egg' of an Aseroe rubra (Anemone Stinkhorn) fungus. I couldn't find anything online about how long it takes for the fruiting body to emerge from the membranous sac - I assumed it would only be a few days (and it was). On Tuesday night, it began to 'hatch' and I spent the next six hours observing this incredible process. I've put my photos - taken every half hour (or so) until 03h30 that night and then randomly over the next few days- into this short video. 

The fruiting body, with its stinky brown gleba (which attracts flies and insects, and contains the spores) is short-lived. Within 12hrs it had begun to wither and degrade and three days later, in the protected environment of the glass jar, was looking very sorry. In nature they're only around for 24-48hrs.

It was incredibly exciting and interesting to observe this hatching. When I first caught sight of the splitting egg and then the 'fingers' furled just under the very thing membrane - elated!

The process happens really quickly as the stipe (stem) grows and elongates, and the arms radiate with 'fingers' extended and the shiny brown gleba presented for all the insects to find.

It really is quite incredible to see it go from 'egg' to this in five hours.

And this by mid-morning...

You can watch my short video compilation of my photographs here. 

I love fungi

 I've got the bug. Bad. Like real bad. Like I can't stop thinking about fungi.

Of course, they have always been around - something you see especially on forested trails. Mushrooms and lichens. I was always charmed by the mushroom 'bumps' under the pine needles in the Lakenvlei forests where I hosted my Forest Run event. I wasn't hugely moved by mushrooms. They were just interesting and fun to uncover on my visits there.

Then, in early April I saw my first stinkhorn fungus. And then another. I keep an eye out for them. 

At the beginning of May I discovered iNaturalist. I'd seen a poster about a City Nature Challenge and decided to participate, especially as I'd jumped back into doing some repeat photography. 

And then, just like that, a switch was flipped. iNaturalist appeals to me on many levels. 

• I enjoy volunteering, assisting and contributing. 
• I am community orientated. 
• I have a background in science and research. 
• Citizen science appeals to me.

I also identify with the incredible functionality of this platform. Anyone can observe, photograph and record sightings of fauna and flora, generating a massive database of information on diversity, distribution, seasonality and frequency. Researchers can pull from this data for their studies. There is no way that they would be able to generate the data on their own.

The iNaturalist software has this great feature where it suggests possibilities for the identification of your sighting when you upload a photo - much like facial recognition. It is brilliant. 

After discovering iNaturalist.org, I logged a few observations - like the two chameleons that I saw and photographed. And then a couple of flowers and an agama that I saw while away near De Rust. 

This whole time, I'm thinking about iNaturalist and the overwhelming number of things that I could log. Birds, trees, flowers, insects... A person could turn themselves inside out. I knew that I would need to pick something to focus on. But what?

I'm no good at birds - you need to sit around to photograph them. That doesn't work for me. When I'm out, I'm walking or running or paddling. 

The Proteas and Ericas and other fynbos are abundant with incredible diversity. I enjoy seeing them and sometimes stop to look closer at a flower. They're interesting but that's it. 

Insects too require more focus to find.

Fungi, on the other hand, they are just there. Everywhere it seems.

After getting back from De Rust, I began noticing more different fungi. Was it that I was being more observant or are there really more around? It seems the latter is probably the case.  I've just taken a look on iNaturalist at the seasonality of a number of different types of fungi in South Africa and it seems like April and May are high points. I also spend time in environments that are ideal for fungi.

I really, really, really like fungi. Not so much the regular mushroom type of fungi, but the other stuff like jelly fungi, slime molds, anything with nice colours and, of course, stinkhorns.

Some of my recent fungal finds.

Diversity is huge. Fungi offer a huge range in colour, size and shape and yet their classing is pretty good so that you can narrow in for identification. And I see them everyday.

I've been photographing them and logging my observations on iNaturalist. Yesterday I went out with the dogs and I didn't plan on photographing anything - but I couldn't resist and so got home with four observations to log - three of them new-to-me species.

The other night I took advantage of a book sale on Takelot so I ordered my first book on fungi. It arrived today. "Field Guide to Mushrooms & other Fungi of South Africa" by Gary B Goldman & Marieka Gryzenhout. It is magical.

What I have discovered is that this isn't just about photographing and logging as many as I can. I am a bit attached to a bunch of 'my' fungi. Most are on trails that I regularly roam so I like to visit them regularly. This is perhaps a bit of where my repeat-photography interest comes in because I like to re-photograph the fungi to see how much they grow and change over time. The slime molds are proving especially interesting (3 sites now).

I also have my first 'pet' fungus - and it is the reason that I'm awake at 02h15. I'm not working. I'm writing this blog and watching my new pet. I'll reveal more about it tomorrow.

Fungi. Who would have guessed! I have a lot to learn but with my new book, iNaturalist, people in this community and the power of the internet, I'll be on a steep learning curve over the coming months.