365 Urban Species. #193: Dog Vomit

Photos by cottonmanifesto. Location: Landscaping outside power generator building for Longwood Medical area hospitals, Boston.

Urban species # 193: Dog vomit Fuligo septica

The most disgusting but unassailably accurate common name I've ever heard for any organism is "dog vomit" slime mold. A foamy pile of goo, yellowish like bile, or pinkish like stomach contents, no name fits quite like dog vomit. Sometimes it is called "scrambled egg" slime mold, but where's the fun in that? Actually, for a brief time in its life cycle, it does have the lumpy texture and sulphur color of scrambled eggs. But slime molds are curious creatures, changing from one form to the next--first appearing mysteriously, traveling a short distance, then clumping up, then apparently turning back into the very dust of the earth. Often times beautifully, like wolf's milk. But not dog vomit.

Most urban people encounter dog vomit slime mold on the wood chips of a landscaped park or parking lot edge. Sometimes it coalesces in a yard or garden. In a matter of days or hours, the plasmodium (collection of nuclei with no cell membranes) becomes an aethalium (spore-bearing structure). This structure dries, and the spores are dispersed on the wind. The aethalium is edible, and has been part of the diet of various indigenous people. Its English common name, its almost equally off-putting scientific name, not to mention its appearance, help to preclude this usage for most contemporary foragers.

( Dog vomit picture story )