Introduction
My first thought was to produce a 'technical paper', which would give a pretty heavy account of the Myxomycete. Phrases like the following .... 'amoeba-flagellate protozoans', then an explanation...'which are the soil organisms from which, it is now generally accepted, the various groups of slime-moulds have evolved'. However, after producing such a paper with something in the order of 1500 words, it struck me that it was not what the editor had hinted at when chatting about the possibility of 'something about Myxomycetes, John?' So what follows is something a little more light hearted, hopefully!

Why, for heavens sake spend one's time scratching about under logs, amongst stinging nettles, stooping, nose nearly to the ground, possibly barely three feet from the edge of melting snow? 
No answer really except the standard one, that is to say the applicable version of 'because it's there', ... 'because one (Myxo) might be there'.

First ever, for me, was at the edge of the snowline above Aviemore. It was on a British Mycological Society foray, and I had been attracted, not only by the prospect of finding mushrooms, but by the opportunity to walk the mountains of Scotland while so doing. A 'snow-line foray' was on the programme and that had to be something different.

The chair lift hoisted most of the members, (some did the alternative 'lowland foray'), to the ski-station. Our instructions, other than to keep an eye open for the 'macros', was to search about two to three feet below the snow-line where the wet bilberry and grasses might yield a Myxomycete. It was, in my mind at that time, but another family of the fungi world. Soon, one of the party, whose name has long since left me, called over to Bruce, who, on the spot, identified a Myxomycete with the name, Lepioderma aggregatum. Sorry folks but in order to give you the definition of this wee beastie, I need to revert to some jargon.

Lepioderma aggregatum  Kowlaski.

Mycologia 63:511.1971. California.

Sporocarps short plasmodiaocarps, clustered in lines, 1.5-3mm long, grey-yellow brown, shining. Hypothallus membranous, not conspicuous. Peridium single, membranous but firm, with a closely packed covering of smooth-edged calcereous scales, 30-50µm diam, variously shaped but often rectangular. Columella hemispherical, light brown. Capilltium of thin, branching threads with a few cross-connections, bearing occasional small swellings. Spores dark brown in mass, pale brown in transmitted light, 11-15µm diam, densely covered by dark spines up to 1µm long. Plasmodium white.

Habitat: on vegetation at the edge of melting snow on mountains in the spring.

Distribution known from a few sites in the Scottish Highlands. Apart from the mountains of northern California this species is now known from the Alps in Austria, France and Switzerland. (i)

My first find
With this sighting, I was spurred on to make my first ever find. Several others were found on the foray but it was not until well into the afternoon, and on our way down the slopes underneath the cable way that I found Lamproderma sauteri. Five of us were strung out along this wringing wet bank alongside the path, our noses a few inches from the bilberry leaves and stems, when I spotted a small irridescent speck 'hanging' on to the stems. A closer look through the x10 magnifying glass confirmed my first Myxomycete.

I suppose this was a defining moment in my short mycological existence as I was from then on truly and firmly smitten.

This is not to say I found Myxos by the score. To tell the truth it is the case that I eagerly pushed more spiders' eggs, ant detritus and other non-myxo material under the nose (perhaps eye would be more apt) of Bruce Ing, than Myxomycetes. However Bruce recognised the potential (hm...) and took it all with a great heart and rejoinders such as...'you will get the feeling for them...', 'most (first-timers) have been taken in by....'.

Lamproderma sauteri

Mon: 205.1874. Austria. Syn. Lamproderma violaceum var. sauteri (Rostaf.) Lister

Sporocarps stalked sporangia, to 4mm high, globose, 0.3 - 0.4mm diam, globose, slightly flattened at the base, dark blue with metallic sheen, not shining. Hypothallus well developed, dark grey. Stalk black. Columella reaching the centre of the sporangium, slightly broadened at the top. Capillitium of coarse, stiff, straight reddish-purple threads, suddenly pale at the tips so that after the spores are shed the capillitium looks frosted. Spores black in mass, purple-brown in transmitted light, 12-14µm diam, warted, the warts often tall enough to be mistaken for blunt spines. Plasmodium colourless. Habitat: on vegetation at the edge of melting snow patches in spring. Distribution known only from scattered locations in the Scottish Highlands, only recently seen in the Cairngorms, One of the commoner snowline species in Europe and North America, also known from New Zealand and the Chilean Andes.(i)

A recent find
It seems to me I need now to come right up to date. One of my most recent finds was on our Thorpe Arch foray. At first it seemed as if it was going to be an occasion when no Myxo was to come to hand. However after lunch the group moved into an area of quite dense hawthorn, which fortunately had wide rides going through it. Interspersed with the hawthorn at irregular and infrequent intervals were a few broadleaf and conifer trees, the latter being larch.  

Several of the larch, for some reason other, had fallen, and despite the general dryness of the site, were providing rotting dampish logs and stumps, a pretty good habitat for Myxomycetes. The various 'texts' tell us 'it' is ... more or less confined to rotten trunks and stumps of conifers, but occasionally found on birch or alder, very common in conifer woods, found throughout the British Isles'.....(i): Dead wood leaves and debris....abundant in the British Isles in summer', (ii) .... 'On dead wood. Abundant in the British Isles in summer and autumn'; 'Dead wood. Widely distributed in Europe and North America; South Africa.' (iii)

'It' was such a fine example of Cribraria argillacea (see photos, taken by Anne Bowers) I just had to call the others over to see it before taking a portion back to the 'lab' for a confirmation check. This is an interesting example in as much the sporocarp gives the impression of being a pseudoaethalia, whereas, in fact the cluster is composed of individual sporangia which retain complete identity. They are globose; 0.5 -1.0 mm diameter. The stalk is rarely more than 1mm high, is dark brown to black and furrowed. The sporangia sit on a continuous horn-brown hypothallus.

The pictures show the plasmodia, a mass of freshly made ‘lead shot’, the gloss of which passes as the sporangia develop. Click here for a different photo of the Cribraria argillacea.

 

Definitions

myxomycete: A eukaryotic microorganism with a plasmodium as the assimilative stage and a sexually produced resting spore as the propagule.

aethalium: sporocarp derived from the whole plasmodium, without separation into sporangia.

capillitium: the system of thread and other structures within the sporocarp which separate and help to disperse the spores.

pseudoaethalium: sporocarp produced from the whole plasmodium but with partial separation into individual sporangia, which share a cortex and may have joined capillitia.

 

Names

argillacea; from Latin argillaceus- (clay coloured)

Cribraria: from Latin Cribrum (sieve)

Lamproderma from Greek lampros (bright) and derma (skin)

sauteri in honour of A E Sauter (1800-1881)

Lepioderma from the Greek lepis (scale) ad derma (skin)

aggregatum from the Latin aggregatus (clustered)

 

A thought, or two!
Myxomycetes existed on earth from times long before human beings had arrived. They trace an evolutionary path quite separate from us. We both are alive and prosper together. Judging from their side: would  Myxomycetes consider us to be as mysterious as we (still) consider them to be? (iv) Further 'Myxo-moments' will appear in future. Mixtures of personal experience whilst collecting, with a smattering of biological description. I have the above described in my herbarium!

 

References

i) The Myxomycetes of Britain and Ireland. An Identification Book. Bruce Ing. 1999 Pub. The Richmond Publishing Co. Ltd.

ii) Mycetozoa. Lister 3rd edition 1925. British Museum NH.

iii) The Myxomycetes. G. W. Martin and C. J. Alexopoulus. 1969 University of Iowa Press.

iv) Magic of Myxomycetes, Hiromitsu et al. 1997 National Science Museum Tokyo.

 

Author and © John Webb 2003.
Photos - © Adrian Norris [Myxo man] and © Anne Bowers [Cribraria argillacea]

 

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