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Ranging from yellow to red, this organism is somewhat squishy and can be as large as the size of my hand. It has a lumpy texture and they can be found in moist sand near plants at the so-cal tide pools.
Spotted at La Jolla Shores during low tide.
I added the second and third photo after a second trip to the tide pools on November 25th.
Spotted on Nov 22, 2011
Submitted on Nov 23, 2011
14 Comments
i have now seen, much more infos, than back then , and i suspect, i confused back then some informaton, They are slime mold living in freshwater ( http://waynesword.palomar.edu/slime1.htm... ) and another branch of protista are algae (saltwater) , maybe i mixed them up. Your still look like "red raspberry" slime ( http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&q=... ). (normal slime mold, no sea-water relation) , maybe it is a normal slime mold, wandering of the wrong way, maybe he accidenticly came to the shore. !! I'm somewhat ashamed when i see, SEA-slime mold ---> suggested from me !! :) good luck
interesting pictures and information - I hope you get to see more of this (i e if they are meant to be there! - have more reading to do...
Thank you Alex, I'll keep looking for identification. I'm glad my spotting is something new to you and you were able to learn about slime molds from it. :)
carol, that does not longer look like "Lycogala epidendrum". i will delete my id-suggestion (because , it seems they are wrong). sorry again. i always get a little hyped when i see fungi or slime molds. i suspect still a slime mold , maybe a "sea-slime mold" because the last picture came all from the shore. (i just recently began to really look at slime molds, now molds are my favorite, but "sea- slime molds" are still alien for me. Rather no name than wrong name !! good luck, will let you know, when i found something. more similar.
I added a second picture that has a much larger sample of the mold. It has a more block like appearance, but I believe it's the same organism.
Thank you so much AlexKonig for the new ID. It's much more likely to be this species and they are found in this area. I'll keep an eye out for these and other fungi when I go to the beach tomorrow although I don't think I'll be able to use a microscope to identify it. I probably shouldn't take organisms from their habitat and well, I don't have a microscope anyway. It's supposed to be the lowest tide of the year for so-cal so I should be able to find other interesting specimens and hopefully they will be a bit easier to identify!!! Thanks for all your help. :)
so sorry, avery. I made a little big mistake. Yesterday i thought i would know it and did not look into my book. (it was late ! :) ). After i read your comment, i took the book !!. I confused 2 "slime mold's". I meant to suggest: your spotting could be "plasmodium"( http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&cp... ) from "LYCOGALA epidendrum ( http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&cp... )" --> "toothpaste" or "wolf's milk"- slime mold . I added some more infos for you, even if in california ( http://www.google.nl/#hl=nl&cp=30&am... ). But i think, fungi/slime molds are survival-experts, with the right condition in his habitat, they will tribe, totally not knowing the "name of the land" they are in fruiting. Species are on the move.!! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycogala_ep... ) - wikipedia / ( http://eol.org/pages/1008443/details ) - eol / ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/myxomycete... ) - mushroomexpert / ( http://www.google.nl/#hl=nl&cp=19&am... ) - second pdf is very interesting / those two suggestions [tubifera / lycogala] are both Cosmopolitan distribution, climat is changing, more species will go on tour [if they can]. As i also said : true identification schould be done with a mircoscope. I will be more carefully what i suggest or spell it. sorry again, good luck
Interesting!
Neat, it makes you rethink evolution in a way. Very interesting, thanks for sharing Ava T-B.
There was a recent article in the NY Times Science section about a kind of amoeba that form slime-molds. It was fascinating and even funny: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/scienc...
Thanks for the ID, but every site I found with your information doesn't say anything about them being in Southern California. They may be an invasive species, but i think this may be another organism.
those amoebozoas has some different appearence: moving - slime-shape/ "temp.hiberna" - different shapes / fruiting - like structures,little balls on a stem;hairy;spike,tubes...etc. A exact id- can only archived through genetic-identificaton, but your spotting looks like the "red rasperry slime"-shape of the "Amoebozoa" " tubifera ferruginosa". (which has also some other interesstn background. take a look : ( http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&cp... ) - ( http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&sa... ) - ( http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&sa... ) - ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubifera_fe... ) cheers
looks like some sort of slime mold
slime mold [protist] -formerly myxomycete (formerly "kingdom"- "fungi")- now "domain" --> "eukaryote" - kingdom "fungi/amoebozoas" {MAYBE} -- long explanation- short ---> SLIME MOLD ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold )