The Blob

Did you ever see the 1958 movie The Blob with Steve McQueen? It is about an alien life form that crashes to Earth and begins absorbing everything in sight. It was inspired by Fuligo septica, a type of slime mold. Known as dog vomit for obvious reasons. It appears in mulched areas from May through October.


When I discovered the "dog vomit" in the vegetable garden it had already reached the spore bearing stage. Is this not cool?!


Based on the form it looks as if it would be hard but in fact it is powdery to the touch and will crumble with very little pressure as my boys soon discovered....curious boys minds want (read: need) to know.


It is completely harmless. It feeds on other fungi and decaying organic matter. It usually appears in warm, wet conditions and disappears when the weather becomes dry. Slime molds are native to woodland areas and are beneficial to the garden. So don't mind the mess. It will clean itself up soon.

Comments

  1. Just another one of those weird things we deal with in the garden. :) Interesting how they aren't there one day and the next they are.

    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  2. So glad you wrote a post on this because I have been meaning to ask you about the yellow blobs in my yard for a couple months now! xo!

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  3. P.S. I meant to add - I think this is the same thing that I recently identified in my blog as "snake poop" which was the name I learned in my childhood! I need to correct my error. See, the Internet can be educational!

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    Replies
    1. I looked at your photos. Indeed it does look like dog vomit slime mold. Sometimes it is also called scrambled eggs.

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  4. I bet your sons were delighted by its name !

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    1. They thought it was great! When their dad got home they ran up to him yelling "dad, we found dog vomit in the garden, come see!"

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  5. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I knew it was some sort of mold. It looks disgusting, but I have always just let it stand. Good to know I did the right thing. :)

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  6. It's too dry here for dog vomit. Interesting tidbit. :)

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  7. I have seen this mold, or one very similar, up here a while back and had no idea what it was. It will be a name I remember though. Thanks for posting it.

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  8. Funny..."cool" is not the adjective that came to my mind first, although you are right--it is cool. I've seen that in my mulch along with various fungi and other strange growing things. They usually dry up in the heat of the summer. Great post!

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  9. I love finding these cool fungi.....I should see some soon with the warm wet weather we are having.

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  10. I find slime molds whenever we get a lot of rain. They're cool and gross at the same time. I always get bright orange ones that look like alien life forms. Just really short aliens that you could step on if they got a little rough.

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One of my favorite things about blogging is the conversation with readers. Leave a comment and let's get talking. ~Karin

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