Description: Photograph Notes: The substance that looks rather like ice in this photo, which was taken on a warm and humid day, is the slime mould Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa (var. fruticulosa). More precisely, this is the plasmodial (feeding) stage, in which the slime mould is in the form of a plasmodium: a mobile mass of protoplasm. It is not "naked protoplasm", though; the protoplasm, though without a cell wall, is contained within a cell membrane. In some respects the slime mould is like a giant amoeba, and it moves in the same manner, namely, by means of protoplasmic streaming. One important difference (aside from size) is that a plasmodium, unlike an amoeba, contains multiple cell nuclei. The plasmodium shown here was transparent and gelatinous, but the photo also shows traces of the delicate silvery patterns that were evident within. These perhaps indicate the direction of the streaming flow of the protoplasm; at any rate, they show the places where the spore-bearing structures will soon develop. Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa has a plasmodium that is more massive than that of most other slime moulds (as an aside: plasmodia of the species Brefeldia maxima can also be very large). In this case, the species could be identified because an example of the next stage of its development, the spore-bearing stage, occurred immediately next to it. Not far away, on the same day, I encountered a very extensive example of that stage of the life-cycle: [[1468765]]. While the spore-producing stage of this species is frequently seen, the plasmodium, being almost entirely transparent for much of its existence, is naturally harder to spot. The textbook "Introductory Mycology" (2002; Alexopoulos, Mims, and Blackwell) says: "In spite of many persistent attempts, C. fruticulosa has not been grown in laboratory culture through its entire life cycle and plasmodium formation has not been observed. In nature the plasmodium has been observed only as a mature structure just before it is ready to sporulate". Product Description: You will be buying a Photograph produced using professional photographic lab equipment and printed on high quality photographic paper. Please note that sometimes a small amount of image cropping is neccessary to produce your photograph. Some photographs may have areas of white space along the edges / border. Produced on a Print & Supply basis from an image previously made available on Geograph by the Copyright holder Condition: New Size: 12" x 8" - 305mm x 203mm Copyright (Photograph and text in Photograph Notes): � Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 details available here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ Search our eBay Shop for other Photos Click Here Postage & Packing: All items are posted securely packaged with card inserts to avoid damage in the post hence the higher postage cost than the standard cost of a 1st / 2nd class stamp. We discount postage for multiple photographs and slides purchased, please wait for the invoice to be sent with the discounted postage rate applied.
Price: 6 GBP
Location: Faversham
End Time: 2025-01-08T18:04:47.000Z
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