Dog vomit by any other name

Oh no, I hear you say, not another fungus. No, it might look like a fungus but it isn't one.

This is the dog vomit, or scrambled egg slime mould Fuligo septica. Slime moulds aren't plants, nor are they animals or fungi, instead they are usually classified as belonging to the Protista.

Slime moulds cells spend most of their lives as independent, amoeba-like cells, dining on fungi and bacteria, but if times become hard they swarm and aggregate into an enormous multi-nucleated single cell or a mass of individual cells which moves slowly across the ground in an organised fashion. These large masses act like giant amoebas, creeping slowly along and engulfing food particles along the way. If a slime mould aggregate is diced up, the pieces will pull themselves back together. The blobs can navigate and avoid obstacles and if a food source is placed nearby, they seem to sense it and head unerringly for it. I am sure that you will enjoy this excellent time lapse clip from the BBC showing a slime mould in action and reproducing!

In Scandinavian folklore, Fuligo septica is thought to be the vomit of a troll cat, the familiar of a witch. Troll cats lap up cream, or suck milk directly from cows and then spit it out into the witches' milk pails.