Carnival Candy Slime Mold- Arcyria denudata

Carnival candy slime mold or cotton candy slime mold (Arcyria denudata) is a worldwide myxomycete species. What are myxomycetes (slime molds) anyway? Slime mold is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic (posessing a nucleus) organisms that can live freely as single cells, but can also aggregate together to form multicellular reproductive structures. The fruiting bodies we see in the picture are reproductive structures that form spores. They open and expand to release spores as they mature, resulting in a fluffy cotton candy appearance as in the photo. "Myxos" are all around us and a beautiful place to start looking for them are moist rotting logs in a forest. They love the same conditions as fungi but for myxos you have to train your eyes to see patches of white or coloured pinheads on moist rotting wood or leaves. Like a lot of fungi they help to recycle organic material. I am excited about finally finding and photographing some of these beauties.

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