*Lycogala epidendrum*, commonly known as *wolf's milk* or *toothpaste slime*, is a cosmopolitan species of plasmoidal slime mould which is often mistaken for a fungus. The aethalia, or fruting bodies, occur either scattered or in groups on damp rotten wood, especially on large logs, from June to November. These aethalia are small, pink to brown cushion-like globs. They may excrete a pink paste if the outer wall is broken before maturity. When mature, the colour tends to become more brownish. When not fruiting, single celled individuals move about as very small, red amoeba-like organisms called plasmodia, masses of protoplasm that engulf bacteria, fungal and plant spores, protozoa, and particles of non-living organic matter through phagocytosis .
During the plasmodial stage, individuals are reddish in colour, but these are almost never seen. When conditions change, the individuals aggregate by means of chemical signaling to form an aethalium, or fruiting body. These appear as small cushion-like blobs measuring about 0.3 cm to 1.5 cm in diameter. Colour is quite variable, ranging from pinkish-gray to yellowish-brown or greenish-black, with mature individuals tending towards the darker end. They may be either round or somewhat compressed with a warted or rough texture. While immature they are filled with a pink, paste-like fluid. With maturity the fluid becomes a powdery mass of minute gray spores. The spores measure 6 to 7.5 µm and are round in shape with a netted texture and appearing ochre to lavender in colour. The pseudocapillitia, sterile elements in the spore mass, are long, flattened, branching tubes with transverse wrinkles and folds. Regards Tanay On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 3:43 AM, R. Vijayasankar <[email protected]>wrote: > Since it was not our 'focus', i could not note any information and also > didn't place any scale to measure it! > > Ff possible, pl id it. Thanks. > > With regards > > Vijayasankar Raman > National Center for Natural Products Research, > The University of Mississippi, > Oxford, MS-38677, USA. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "efloraofindia" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<indiantreepix%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix?hl=en. > -- Tanay Bose +91(033) 25550676 (Resi) 9830439691(Mobile) 9674221362 (Mobile) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix?hl=en.
