Leocarpus brittle (Leocarpus fragilis)
- Department: Myxomycota (Myxomycetes)
- Type: Leocarpus fragilis (Brittle Leocarpus)
:
- Lycoperdon fragile
- Diderma vernicosum
- Physarum vernicus
- Leocarpus vernicosus
- Lacquered leangium
A myxomycete that goes through the usual stages for myxomycetes in its development: mobile plasmodium and the formation of sporophores.
It develops on leaf litter, small waste and large deadwood, can live on living trees, in particular, on bark, grass and shrubs, as well as on the droppings of herbivorous animals. Plasmodium is quite mobile, therefore, for the formation of sporophores (in a simple way – fruiting bodies, these are those beautiful bright shiny cylinders that we see) it can climb quite high on the trunks of trees and shrubs.
Sporangia are located in rather dense groups, less often scattered. Size 2-4 mm high and 0,6-1,6 mm in diameter. Egg-shaped or cylindrical, can be in the form of a hemisphere, sessile or on a short stem. At a cursory glance, they resemble insect eggs. The color range is from yellow in newly formed to almost black in old ones: yellow, ocher, yellow-brown, red-brown, brown to black, shiny.
The leg is thin, filiform, flat white, yellowish. Sometimes the stem can branch, and then a separate sporangium is formed on each branch.
Spores are brown, 11-16 microns with a thinner shell on one side, large warty.
Spore powder is black.
Plasmodium is yellow or red-yellow.
Cosmopolitan, quite widespread in the world, in regions with a temperate climate and in the taiga zone.
Similar to other slime molds in yellow, orange and reddish hues.
Unknown.
Photo: Alexander.