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Nostoc commune
Weird, leathery and gelatinous at the same time, dark green wrinkled patches, occurring directly on soil and just after the rain. The biggest ones were some 20 cm in length, and peeled off the ground easily. There were over 20 patches like these in about 30 square meters on that shore.
Found in protected lowland marshlands of Geneva lake valley, growing directly on sandy soils of shores of a pond. Undisturbed soil, but an area with a lot of human passage. Deciduous forests in and around this marshy area, and many agricultural fields close by.
When I first saw this, I thought it would be some sort of weird fungus, Witch's butter or alike, but it came out that Star Jelly (also known as witch's butter too, but also as mare's eggs, fah-tsai and facai) is a species of cyanobacterium in the family Nostocaceae. Thanks Mauron for the help in ID.
Like land kelp.
I like the way it can reappear from seemingly nothing.
Nice spotting Zlatan.
Spotted on Nov 2, 2019
Submitted on Feb 3, 2020
