By Meghan Lindsay
Slime moulds are amazing and you can find them right here in the Yarra Ranges.
I know what you’re thinking, amazing isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you envisage the combination of slime and mould. But they are, and by the end of this article, you’ll agree!
I love bushwalking around the Yarra Range – We’ve got some of the most spectacular forests and wildlife right on our doorstep. Photographing nature is one of my favourite things to do. I particularly enjoy searching for and photographing fungi and I’ve recently become obsessed with slime moulds.
Here’s why.
From Dog Vomit to Honeycomb Coral, there’s some pretty intriguing slime moulds out there. For many years, they were categorised as plants. Even though they share some similar traits to plants, animals and fungi, they’re actually in a completely separate
group. For much of their lives they exist as single celled organisms. Then, when the right environmental triggers (like moisture levels) excite them, the change begins. Those single cells join together to form a plasmodium.
As a plasmodium, they can move around and feed. These plasmodium are so adept at moving around, they can even find their way through a maze to reach a delicious food reward. When the time is right, slime mould plasmodium go through another change. They morph into spectacular sporing bodies, allowing them to send out spores to reproduce. It’s either these spectacular sporing bodies or the hungry plasmodium that you’ll spot in the forest.
Slime moulds have fascinating life cycles and extraordinary sporing bodies. They’re also an important part of our ecosystem. These tiny decomposers break down and recycle nutrients at a microscopic level, making those nutrients available for other wildlife to use.
Now that you know how incredible they are, it’s time to find out how to search for them on your next forest walk.
Wet forests and rainforests are great places to look for slime mould. And fungi, once the autumn rains arrive, but that’s another story.
Places like Sherbrooke Forest and Sassafras Creek Nature Conservation Reserve in the Dandenong Ranges, and the Ada Tree and Wirrawilla Rainforest walks in the Yarra Ranges, are perfect places for a slime mould search.
My top tip is to search for them once there’s been rain after a long dry period. Another top tip is to search on the sides of logs as you walk through the forest. Don’t forget that slime moulds are often pretty small, so you’ll need to look closely to spot them.
You won’t always spot a slime mould along a forest walk, so patience and persistence are key. Remember, most of the time they exist as microscopic single cells, only joining forces to spore when the time is right.
Even if you don’t find one on your next walk, whilst you’re on the lookout you’ll inevitably find some other intriguing tiny wildlife like fungi, insects and more!
If you find a slime mould (or other interesting wildlife) you can take a photo and upload it up to the iNaturalist App. That will help you figure out what type of slime mould it is, plus you’ll help scientists and land managers learn more about them.
Happy slime mould searching!
