No, it isn’t what the dog threw up, but it sure looks like it could be. It was growing in the bark mulch in my backyard. First time I’ve seen it.
Back in April, Pit from pitsfritztownnews posted a photo of slime mold (also called dog vomit slime mold), and I said that we don’t have it here. He’s in Texas; I’m on Vancouver Island. I’ve added a link to his post at the bottom of the page.
This slime mold is about the size of an adult hand with fingers spread out.
Apparently this fungus frequently comes in bark mulch and grows when the weather is humid. Hot dry weather usually dries it up and it dies. Meanwhile, although it is not meant to be eaten, it won’t kill you and it’s not toxic to pets. It is just to be tolerated and possibly admired for its uniqueness.
Here is Pit’s link:
https://pitsfritztownnews.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/this-here/
July 22, 2020 at 8:55 am
It’s a bit creepy! 🤭💀
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July 22, 2020 at 9:00 am
Certainly not pretty like a mushroom.
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July 22, 2020 at 9:17 am
Great, you let it live! Very interesting “thing” is it, never seen it before.
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July 22, 2020 at 10:38 am
First time for me. And yes, I let it live since it isn’t harmful to anything. 🙂
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July 22, 2020 at 9:24 am
I could have gone all day–all week–without seeing that. Wouldn’t have missed it either. Yuck!
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July 22, 2020 at 10:19 am
Lovely stuff, isn’t it?
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July 22, 2020 at 9:28 am
Thanks, Anneli, for linking to my blog. I just checked again: this stuff really is EDIBLE! Would you believe it. Indigenous Mexican people cooked it like scrambled eggs.Even thinking of that makes me gag. 😀
It also seemed to be highly intelligent, as an article in a German newspaper shows: https://is.gd/cV6Non
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July 22, 2020 at 10:33 am
I had another look and found this: Considered relatively harmless, it is possible for susceptible people to have an allergy to this organism and it could trigger an episode of asthma or allergic rhinitis.
Then it went on to say some people have eaten it with no ill effects (like the indigenous Mexican people you mentioned). I don’t think I’ll be trying it. I checked out your newspaper article and I think much of it is written “tongue in cheek.”
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July 22, 2020 at 10:44 am
I would not eat it, either.
As to the article: but there seem to be some quite intriguing scientific studies. Not all of it is “tongue in cheek”, to my mind.
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July 22, 2020 at 10:59 am
No, not all. I suppose it’s all in what you think of as intelligence. Some of that “intelligence” in plants is what I call more like “stimulus-response.” So we’re probably talking about the same thing but with different terms.
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July 22, 2020 at 3:03 pm
Agreed!
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July 22, 2020 at 10:03 am
I’ve seen that around. Of course…I had to look at this post while eating my lunch…yuck!
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July 22, 2020 at 10:34 am
Oooh! Bad timing, Jill. It is rather gross-looking.
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July 22, 2020 at 10:46 am
The first time I ever saw it, I thought it was some sort of animal vomit. 🙂
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July 22, 2020 at 11:01 am
This is the first time I’ve seen it, and if it hadn’t been for Pit’s post back in April, I wouldn’t have known what it was.
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July 22, 2020 at 10:34 am
That name certainly conjures an image! Don’t think I could bring myself to eat it!
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July 22, 2020 at 10:35 am
No, I wouldn’t recommend it.
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July 22, 2020 at 10:34 am
I live in an arid climate and have never seen or heard of this particular organism, but your essay intrigued me. You did a good job describing it, Anneli. Fun post.
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July 22, 2020 at 10:36 am
This is the first time I’ve ever seen it, but it has been an unusual year, weatherwise – humid and not as hot as usual for July.
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July 22, 2020 at 10:49 am
Good for you to let it live, as soon as it gets dry it is dead anyway. It looks interesting but not really very pretty.
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July 22, 2020 at 11:00 am
No, not pretty at all and maybe that’s why I left it alone. I don’t really want to handle it anyway.
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July 23, 2020 at 12:46 pm
Quite the name . . . slime mold. I can’t say I’ve run across one of these. Nature’s provocative side can amaze.
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July 23, 2020 at 3:18 pm
It’s all new to me too. I never thought I’d see one here.
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July 24, 2020 at 4:33 am
I sometimes get it in my bark mulch. It’s always interesting.
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July 24, 2020 at 7:33 am
Seems like everyone has seen it except me!
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July 24, 2020 at 7:42 am
Haha! 😀
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July 24, 2020 at 6:32 am
It looks like a science project gone wrong 😏. Interesting though.
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July 24, 2020 at 7:34 am
The Captain noticed it and asked if one of the dogs had been sick.
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October 18, 2020 at 7:34 am
cool i never knew but a bit 🤮
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