The trail to slime

The pandemic lockdown in March 2020 meant no no more group hikes with my hiking club . There was nowhere to go except outside, so I armed myself with trail maps and a compass to start hiking solo. Without companions to chat with on the trail , my hike became a time of leisurely exploration and mediation . There was ample time to slow down and observe the textures of tree bark, the play of light on the budding trees and the forest floor.

Fungi or mushrooms were everywhere - nestled in dead leaves, perched on rotting logs , and clinging to trees. Sizes ranged from a tiny pink parasol mushroom a half inch high to a massive shelf fungi bigger than a baseball mitt. There were plenty of LBM's ( little brown mushrooms) , but the shapes and colors were astonishing - fiery oranges, lemon yellows , crimson reds , deep purples, and lime green. One humid July morning after a heavy rain , I found over forty species in two hours.

I photographed the fungi to draw them at home with my favorite colored pencils .Many sketchbooks were filled and shared with friends and family .

However, there was a secret world hidden under logs, in crevices and creeping through the forest- slime molds . Soon I was rolling over logs to photograph and draw the these fascinating organisms. Slime molds are not plants or animals or fungi , but a separate unique kingdom. They can "think " and move - up to 1.5 inches per hour.

Slime molds can be jelly-like blobs, lacy nets , velvety hanging ropes , chambered vessels or narrow bands. Their common names reflect their appearances or may relate to legends or myths. Wolf's milk starts out as silvery capsules which burst open into lumpy orange "marshmallows" filled with spores. The multigoblet mold has velvety deep scarlet ropes with wineglass shaped chambers for spores. Bubble gum, strawberry , dog vomit, cotton candy and coral molds live up to their names, as does the chocolate tube.

A jeweler's loupe , magnifying glass or microscope reveals the elegant spores looking an alien army of popsicle shaped spores on tiny stalks.A macro lens on your cell phone can capture their translucent beauty .

The over 900 species of slime molds are the clean up crew of the forest, consuming dead plants, bacteria, yeasts and fungi .Researchers now call slimes "intelligent ." They can find the the shortest route through a maze to their favorite food in the research lab - oat flakes . They can learn to tolerate unappealing barriers like salt bridges to reach the desirable food, trying numerous times until they build up tolerance and speed. When slime molds solved a maze based on the Tokyo rail system , their efficient routes were eerily similar to the routes designed by human engineers.

They reproduce only when the conditions are right and aggregate by "streaming " for mutual benefit. Aggregation to seek food or reproduce has been used to model action figures' movements in video games. Cancer researchers study molds' foraging for food to understand how invasive cancer tumors create their own vascular systems which grow and fuse with healthy systems. Slime molds could inspire wireless networks for disaster relief - or vaccine distribution during a pandemic .

Slime mold research is just beginning. They were lumped with fungi for many decades, but now they are recognized as separate kingdom .They can move, plan , solve problems, cooperate, and adapt to changing conditions - all without brains , or eyes or noses .

If I had not started hiking solo during the pandemic, I never would have become fascinated fungi and slime molds on my trail to slime . They inspired hundreds of photos and dozens of drawings and watercolors .Despite the challenges of living through a pandemic, my life has been enriched .

.