I was about to blame the local cats (digestive problems): but it's Nostoc Algae!

Annemos

Afternoon everyone. 

After 2 days of torrential rain, I have a long row of this algae on the other side of my boundary wall. 

It is Council Land and very compacted clay, devoid of any grass. A few weeds grow there. 

I was inwardly swearing at the local cats, but then I thought..... hang on, the cats cannot produce such a lot of mess. 

Here is a photo from a website and the link. (My algae is quite dark in colour.) 

I also get three or four mushroom varieties along there in the Autumn, as a big tree was taken down by the Insurance Company in 2019. I think the mushrooms thrive on the goodness provided by the decaying root structure of the old tree. 

It's all fascinating. 

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/nostoc_a_green_jelly_like_substance_growing_in_lawns#:~:text=The%20jelly-like%20blobs%20of%20green%20are

Dustyevsky

Yes, we get some of this stuff too, usually on cleared land awaiting further work. I've called it 'slime mould,' so thanks for the true ID. Despite a severe shortage of laver seaweed around here, and the visual similarity, I doubt I'll be using this as a substitute!

Keep_pedalling

Dustyevsky said:

Yes, we get some of this stuff too, usually on cleared land awaiting further work. I've called it 'slime mould,' so thanks for the true ID. Despite a severe shortage of laver seaweed around here, and the visual similarity, I doubt I'll be using this as a substitute!

You could It is edible. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostoc_commune#:~:text=Nostoc%20commune%20is%20eaten%20as,post%2Drain%20mushroom%22).

twopenny

I love my fungi and algae. It's facinating when you find out about the varieties.

I also had a mystery woodland mess. Walking in a nature reserve I saw slimey white stuff with bits of yellow in. Patches of it like that.

Thinking it was a pets digestive probs first.

Then the brain finally made the connection. It was squirrels,rats, pigeons or some such taking bits of corn cobs from the next door field and having one of their 5 a day then spitting out the tough bits. I'll take a photo to add if it's still there this week.

Annemos

Melvyn Bragg featured a fascinating program last week about Slime Mould. I am attaching the link below, in case anyone is interested and missed it. 

(I have to say, "In our Time" is truly excellent. Wonderful broadcasts.)

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss slime mould, a basic organism that grows on logs, cowpats and compost heaps. Scientists have found difficult to categorise slime mould: in 1868, the biologist Thomas Huxley asked: ‘Is this a plant, or is it an animal? Is it both or is it neither?’ and there is a great deal scientists still don’t know about it.

But despite not having a brain, slime mould can solve complex problems: it can find the most efficient way round a maze and has been used to map Tokyo’s rail network. Researchers are using it to help find treatments for cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and computer scientists have designed an algorithm based on slime mould behaviour to learn about dark matter. It’s even been sent to the international space station to help study the effects of weightlessness." 


https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002691y