A plasmodium is the (slowly) mobile feeding stage of a slime mould. This specimen was found beside a footpath. That path leads through an area that was covered in conifers until three years earlier (
NS3581 : Logging in progress). Many tree stumps remain, and this slime mould was on the side of one of them; it is about 8cm tall, and, at its widest, about 6cm across.
The slime mould is not identifiable to species at this stage.
At an earlier stage, it would have looked similar to the one shown in
TA0088 : Slime Mould, and would have been fan-shaped, as at present (the widest part of the fan is the leading edge). However, as shown here, it is beginning to knot and clump, which indicates that it is about to transform into the spore-producing stage.
Although this particular specimen was not identified, recent conditions had clearly been favourable for the development of slime moulds: on the open moor to the east of the woods, many plasmodia of Badhamia lilacina (
Link ) were visible in boggy areas, while those of Mucilago crustacea (
Link ) could be seen on grass.
(The yellow fan-shaped plasmodia of Physarum polycephalum are often featured in photographs, because that species is found to be convenient for research, and for illustrative purposes; this can lead to a popular misconception that plasmodia with a similar appearance are of this species. However, though Physarum polycephalum is often used in research, it is not found in the wild in Britain or Ireland, and even in the countries where it does occur in the wild, it is not common [see Stephenson and Stempen's "Myxomycetes: A handbook of slime moulds"].)