Likely Physarum psittacinum at Strumpshaw Fen woodland – June 2025

14th June

At the end of the drainage channel path we were a little beside ourselves when we spotted this vivid orange phaneroplasmodium!

In the evening the plasmodium had spread larger. The young nettle seedling just left of centre in the photo below is the same seedling that is shown in the first two photos above.

16th June

We were back at the reserve two days later and missed the sporulation stage 😔but we saw that the sporangia were a metallic dark bluish grey with an iridescent sheen with deep orange-red stalks!

Notice the snail shell just left of centre.

17th June

The next day the colour change of the sporotheca to a pale orange was unexpected!

Notice snail shell in the centre – did the mollusc move?

In May 2024 at the Zen Zone we spotted some slime mould sporangia that looked similar to this find that at the time we wanted to think was Physarum psittacinum.