Badhamia Plasmodium Foraging for Food

e6filmuser

When I found the fruiting bodies of Badhamia utricularia (images posted recently) on some logs I had just sawn from a long-dead willow tree, that was on one log and some yellow plasmodium was on an adjacent one.

One piece of plasmodium (first image) was a yellow strap about 1cm long. Although that looked promising, it developed no further but shrivelled and fell off a few days later.

At the same time, there were some scarcely-differentiated threads which, over the following days grew to be relatively extensive, only to finally shrivel and disappear.

I had hoped that the plasmodium would produce fruiting bodies, thus permitting its identity to be confirmed. However, it seems to have been looking for food. The following images show that process.

The stereo is crosseye.

Olympus EM-1 (manual mode), Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, twin flash, hand-held.

Harold

27 January

31 January

1 February 10am

1 February 2pm

2 February 8.30am

e6filmuser

On 3 February I revisited the colony and it had dried up. I took no photos.

On 4 February I though maybe I should take a photo. I was surprised to find fresh growth in a different direction.

All images are by freestanding twin flash. The stereo is crosseye.

On 5 February, once more, the was no visible plasmodium.

Harold