Contents
There are fruiting bodies that are something between mushrooms and animals. Myxomycetes feed on bacteria and are able to move. Tubifera rusty of the Reticulariaceae family belongs to such slime molds. It is a Plasmodium and lives in places hidden from human eyes. Today, about 12 species of such varieties are known.
Where does tubifera rusty grow?
The favorite habitat of these myxomycetes is stumps and snags, fallen trunks of rotten trees. They settle in cracks where dampness remains, where direct rays of the sun do not fall. Their growing time is from early summer to mid-autumn. They come across in the forests of the temperate zone of Our Country, Europe. They are also found to the south: in tropical and equatorial forest zones. These representatives can often be seen in Australia, India, China.
What does the slime mold Tubifera rusty look like?
Myxomycetes are tubules (sporocarps) up to 7 mm high, they are located very closely. They grow together with a side wall, but do not have a common shell. They look like one fruiting body, meanwhile, each sporocarp develops individually. It consists of a head, called a sporangium, and a stem. Such bodies are known as pseudoetalia.
The spores emerge from the sporocarps and form new fruiting bodies. Thus, the slime mold can grow up to 20 cm. At the beginning of maturation, the plasmodium is colored pink, bright red. Gradually, the bodies lose their attractiveness and become dark gray, brown. Therefore, this type of slime mold is called rusty. In this state, they are almost impossible to notice.
The bright color of the tubifera rusty is noticeable to everyone
The development cycle of tubifera rusty is complex:
- Arguments emerge and grow.
- Cells similar to the structure of an amoeba develop.
- Plasmodium with many nuclei are formed.
- A sporophore, a pseudoethalium, is formed.
Then the cycle starts over.
Is it possible to eat rusty tubifera
Pseudoetalium is inedible neither at an early nor at a late stage of maturation. This is not a mushroom, but a completely different fruiting body.
Conclusion
Tubifera rusty – cosmopolitan. It is found in different parts of the earth from northern to southern latitudes. It is not found only in Antarctica.
