Ever heard of chocolate tube slime mold? Okay, neither had I. Today I saw what looked like a miniature alien marching army and had to stop for a closer look.

I’ve watched a sycamore tree near the end of our driveway stand dead for several years. It provided refuge and food for woodpeckers. Eventually, bears or other critters began digging into the trunk for grubs. At that point I knew it wasn’t going to stand much longer.

This past spring it did fall. Various critters still dig around it for food, but at the moment it seems mostly to be a food supply for fungi. They’re very interesting! The first ones to come were shaggy manes.

And now there’s a new one, and it looks like an otherworldly landscape on the topside surface.

At first I thought it was another fungi, but my research says it may instead be chocolate tube slime, which is not a fungi but an amoebozoan. This is a new one for me!

I’ve never seen anything like it, and it’s pretty interesting. I’ll try to get a look every day to see if the form and look of it changes!

#biodiversity #fungifinds #slimemold #realestateagent #artist #ozarks