Slime mold

Uncategorized,

Fuligo septica

I found this is the back yard early in the morning  after rain the previous day. I guessed it was some type of fungus, turns out to be a species of plasmodial slime mold called Fuligo septica, commonly known as scrambled egg slime or dogs vomit slime mold!

Dogs vomit slime mould. Slime molds are just a collection of amoeba yet they can move and coperate as if they are a single organism with awareness and intent.

It really was odd looking, bright yellow, soft and spongy to the touch and underneath it’s really slimy, like a slugs belly.

Slime molds are bizarre and fascinating things, they were initially classified as a type of fungus but this was found to be incorrect. They are now thought of as sitting under the Amoebozoa taxonomic group, a sister group of fungi and animals.

Slime moulds often exist as single cells, but in times of food scarcity they clump together to become a visible gelatinous mass. In this form they can move about as one and are even seen to change shape and function as well as exhibit sensitivities to environmental hazards and food sources.  One scientist John Tyler Bonner, observed that they are “no more than a bag of amoebae encased in a thin slime sheath, yet they manage to have various behaviours that are equal to those of animals who possess muscles and nerves with ganglia – that is, simple brains.”

resources and references

Slime mold Wikipedia 

Dogs vomit Wikipedia

Satin Bowerbird

Animals

Ptilonorhynchus violaceus

The family spent the long weekend at Wombeyan Caves.  They are a group of a few hundred limestone caves set in the Wombeyan Karst Conservation Reserve located about 70Km west of Mittagong.

It’s a remote location, there’s a lot of wildlife in the area, we saw a few  different species of kangaroo and a lot of birds.

On of them was the Satin Bowerbird. I noticed one loitering around under the camp table during the day, one of our friends we were with identified it. As usual a new one for me. The one near the table was a male, all black with a brilliant blue sheen. I’d noticed a group of dusky green birds cavorting around in the early morning, it turns out they were the females.

Female Satin Bowerbird. I only saw the girls in the early morning, flying excitedly about in groups

Satin Bower Birds are meant to live all up and down the east coast of Australia from Cooktown in northern Queensland down to near Melbourne in Victoria. I’ve not seen one before, or at least not recognized one.

Male Satin Bowerbird. Only saw this one male, I think he was picking up scraps from near the table, or he might have been looking for blue things to decorate his bower

As with many birds Satin Bowerbirds display strong sexual dimorphism, the males are black with a glossy blue-purple sheen. The females have a dusky olive green head and back with cream and olive green speckles on their necks and chest. Their wings and tail are brown. Both male and female satin bowerbirds have bright lilac-blue eyes.

Bowerbirds have an interesting courting ritual. The male builds a bower which consists of an avenue of sticks and twigs oriented in a north – south direction. He then decorates it charcoal and saliva, at the platforms at each end he places any blue objects that he can collect. In natural environments these can be feathers and berries, nearer to civilization bower ornaments can consist of any number of blue plastics and other man made materials.

Prospective mates are attracted by the males creations, the male will strut about his bower making hissing and chattering noises and offering up some of his blue collections. If the female is impressed enough she’ll proceed into the bower to mate, then leave to make a nest and rear her young on her own.

I used to read a book to the kids called “Bushranger Bill” I’m pretty sure Bill is a Satin Bowerbird

Resources and references

Waratah

Plants, ,

Telopia speciosissima

“A magnificent flower long valued for its exceptional beauty” NPOS p. 104

Everyone knows the waratah, it’s big, voluminous and deep red in colour, it can’t be missed or mistaken for anything else. The Waratah is the state flower of NSW and narrowly missed out on being chosen as Australia’s national flower. Golden Wattle only became the official national flower in 1988!

The botanist R.T. Baker was a vocal advocate of the waratah arguing that it alone was unique to Australia, whereas, “in the wattle, Australia has not a monopoly like the waratah, for Africa has over one hundred native wattles, and it also occurs in America, East and West Indies and the Islands.”

The only Waratahs I’ve seen in the wild have been at Muogamarra. They are found dotted about the coast of southeast Australia, with a larger concentration centered on the sydney basin and surrounds. The Waratah grows in rocky places in woodland on sandstone.  Flowering time is September to October.

The magnificent Waratah. I came across this while walking with the family at Muogamarra Nature reserve. It was a popular plant, I had to wait my turn to take a photo.
We only saw the one Waratah, it was shorter than I was expecting in person.

Resources and references

Sydney Climate Update

Earth

We’re just coming out of what felt like a freezing cold winter, it seemed like it was bitter and dark for so long. But when it comes to accuracy human skin and brain cells are really terrible at remembering and comparing the weather. Lucky for us we have the data!

Cold and wet at the Mt Tomah botanical gardens

The BOM have updated their long term climate data again. This time we’re in for a treat, we have updates to temperature, sea level and rainfall.

Looking at the maximum and minimum monthly temperature averages we have indeed had some cold months. The July average minimum of 8C is the coldest since 2002 when it was 7.9C, and looking back 30 years only 1995 was colder. The mean maximum for July was cool but many years have been cooler over the past 30 years. 2013 and 2014 were quite warm by comparison though, maybe that’s why it felt cold this year. As we’ve only got up to July we can’t compare moving averages yet.

For sea levels the short term averages actually show a drop in 2014. The 5yr and above moving averages still show an unmistakable upward trend.

Rainfall averages are up, I don’t recall it being particularly wet though, so much for memory.