I came across this splendid little specimen while walking the dog. It is a member of an odd zoological group called the slime molds. These are a bit odd. They spend part of their lives as mobile cells, with little tails for swimming. This stage is haploid meaning it contains half the normal genetic material, it is the slime molds sex cell. With luck it will meet another such haploid swimmer and they will fuse. It will now grow more like a fungi, forming a network of strands and feeding. Often these threads are so thin they are not visible to the naked eye. The slime molds tend to come to our attention when they fruit. These pictures show the fruiting body of a slime mold called Wolfs Milk (Lycogala epidendrum). This is the immature phase, it is still soft and a rather beautiful coral pink colour. As the fruit body matures it will darken and become a mass of spores. These then disperse - if they survive then complete the cycle becoming little motile cells again.
The slime molds are worth looking for, they can be tricky to find as they are so small. Many however are common and it should not be long before you find a few.
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