Mould

Brick compost bin in Epsom

Two tone dog vomit mold reappeared in the compost bin at the bottom of the garden this morning. The debris it is growing on is not locusts or anything like that, rather the pussy bits from a pussy willow which hangs over the back garden.

Properly, according to reference 2, dog vomit slime mold.

Something I felt sure that I had reported and illustrated since the notice at reference 1, near ten years ago, but first search fails to turn anything up, despite the search term 'dog vomit' being simple and clear enough. While second search, a little later, for 'mold' turns up reference 3. Given that 'vomit' finds it now, why it failed to show up first time around is beyond me.

On the other hand, some of the pictures turned up by Bing look very like the stuff we saw out on Holne Moor, a place which sees plenty of rain and mist, on the edge of Dartmoor, a year or so ago. Clumps of bright yellow mould clinging to twigs in gorse bushes. Not like today's mold at all. The sort of thing that might have been included at reference 4, but as far as I can make out, was not. On the other hand, inspection of the archive turns up the snap below, from 20th October last year.

A very modest specimen from Holne Moor

PS 1: note confusion of mould and mold. Wikipedia seems confident that the latter is correct in the present context. While OED appears to allow both, but has its substantive - several columns worth - at mould, with just a stub at mold.

PS 2: 24 hours later, that is to say Wednesday morning: both now ripened to a pleasant, mottled brown. Rather like something flat which has been lightly baked.

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=dog+vomit+mould.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuligo_septica.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/an-old-friend.html.

Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/in-and-around-holne-moor.html.