Specimen #16 Wolf's Milk

Figure 1. Lycogala epiderdrum

Name: Lycogala epiderdrum

Common name: Wolf's Milk

Family: Tubiferaceae

Collection date: September 18, 2015

Habitat: Log

Location: Hiram, OH

Description: Round brown, or pink, sac-like structure alone or in groups

Key used: Keller, Harold W. and Brown, Karl L.(1799). Myxomycetes of Ohio: Their systematics, biology, and use in teaching. Ohio Biological Survey.

Keying steps:

1b) Fruiting bodies not as above; spores occurring in a mass within fruiting body and enclosed (at least during the early stages of development) by a perineum

2a) True capillitium absent, pseduocapillitium composed of irregular elements sometimes present...Order Liceales

1a) Fruiting body an aethalium or pseudoaethalium

2a) Pseudocarpillitum present and usually rather evident, but not taking the form of a columella-like structure

3a) Fruiting body an aethalium, pulvinate to subglobose, with no evidence of individual sporangium-like units

4a) Pseudocapillitium consisting of flattened hyaline tubules; spores pallid...Lycogala epidendrum

Links:

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/wolfs-milk-slime-toothpaste-slime

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/myxomycetes.html