Wolf's Milk - Species of Plasmodial Slime Mold

Slime molds aren't actually molds or even fungi, they're protists. Real molds are more closely related to humans than to slime molds, and slime molds are more closely related to amoebas than fungi.

Slime molds have a complex life cycle. They hatch from spores like the ones seen in this video as microscopic single-cell amoebas. When one of these amoebas meets a suitable match, they merge into a single cell. Then they begin to repeat the nuclear division and grow into a plasmodium, a single cell visible to the naked eye.

Intelligence of slime molds has been studied extensively in the lab. They solve mazes, demonstrate memory, locate odorless objects in the dark, and prepare for the future based on past events, all without a brain or multicellular body. Different theories have been advanced explaining this intelligence, including information encoded in physical oscillations and communication via the cytoskeletal system.

Slime molds are not poisonous and don't harm plants or animals. They eat bacteria, algae, and sometimes fungi. Wolf’s Milk slime mold (Lycogala Epidendrum) is from the genus Lycogala, which has been verified in a lab to possess antimicrobial properties against gram positive and negative bacteria, viruses, and fungi (Dülger, B., Süerdem, T.C., Hacioğlu, N., 2007, Lycogala epidendrum Jc Buxb. Ex L. Fr.'Un Miksomiset Antimicrobial Activity). Indigenous tribes in Ecuador reportedly use Wolf’s Milk to heal wounds (Gamboa-Trujillo P, Grefa G, Uwinjin P, Piyaguaje D, Cavalcanti LH, 2011 Myxomycetes of Ecuador: Ethnomycological notes. Abstracts of the VII International Congress on Systematic and Ecology of Myxomycetes, Recife, Brasil).

00:00 Wolf’s milk on an old stump
00:20 Mature slime mold releasing spores
00:40 Slime molds are not fungi
01:16 Young Wolf’s milk oozes liquid and is sometimes called Toothpaste slime
01:52 Old pine tree stump Wolf’s milk grows on
02:25 Pan through the forest where I found Wolf’s milk in fall

Keep rocking :o)

Mark
https://www.nophoneman.com/