Slime moulds and fungi

It's late September and normally I wouldn't be looking for fungi but this last winter in southern Victoria has been wet and the mosses, mulch and logs are all still saturated so some of the fungi are still happy to send up their fruiting bodies to the air. And not only fungi. There's a whole other Kingdom called Slime Moulds and I've found some of them as well.

These are some that I've seen in the last week or so.

Fungi, Coltricia australica growing in debris on the forest floor at Inverleigh.

Slime Mould on grass, Inverleigh

Slime Mould on grass and moss, Homerton

Slime Mould (I think. It could be called Tubifera. Update: See comments below.) and moss on an old dead tree trunk.

Slime mould on an old tree trunk. It was very, very small and I don't know if the blue discs are a separate species of fungi.

Fungus

Scarlet Sundew

Drosera glanduligera Scarlet Sundew

With a name like 'glanduligula' you would expect it to be covered in glandular hairs and so it is, except for the flowers. They are a very small plant of the heaths in southern Australia. The leaves form a very pretty flat basal rosette and if an insect lands on them it is trapped on the glands and its nutrients absorbed by the plant. The Scarlet Sundew is a carnivorous plant.

Drosera glanduligera Scarlet Sundew

The flower is a beautiful orange-red colour but because the plants are so small it can be overlooked. I like the styles in the centre of each flower of this sundew. There are only three, and they are divided at the tip.

Compare the styles with those of the Climbing Sundew Drosera macrantha and Scented Sundew Drosera aberrans. Both plants also grow in southern Victoria.

Drosera macrantha Climbing Sundew

Drosera aberrans Scented Sundew

Mary's flower?

There's a small perennial shrub, about 40cm high, that flowers in the Brisbane Ranges and in heathland near Geelong called Rhytidosporum procumbens White Marianth. I don't know the origin of the word 'marianth but several sources suggest it means 'Mary's flower'. procumbens means 'lying on the ground' and Rhytidosporum means 'wrinkled seed'.

In the past it has been called a Billardiera and Marianthus and a Pittosporum but in 1862 von Mueller, the Government Botanist in Victoria, transferred it to the genus Rhytidosporum, but it remains in the Pittosporaceae family.

White Marianth Rhytidosporum procumbens, Steiglitz, Victoria

The White Marianth thrives on poor soils of south-eastern Australia but can be easily overlooked and many people would be struggling to name it. The leaves are interesting because some, but not all, have three teeth on the apex.

Anglesea heath in early spring

It's officially spring but the last week has seen driving rain, hail, snow in the Otways and strong winds. But today the sun was shining so I went to some heathy areas near Anglesea to see what was flowering.

I wasn't the only creature out and about. This caterpillar was on a Hakea shrub. I think it's a Oenochroma vinaria.

Caterpillar on hakea (Oenochroma vinaria)

Caterpillar

Bushy Needlewood Hakea decurrens ssp. physocarpa

And a Scorpion Fly was just hanging about like they do. It looked like it was caught in a web but soon flew on to a new spot.

Scorpion Fly

Scorpion Fly

There were mosses and lichens, several types of orchids flowering and a few other plants as well but the flush of spring has not reached us yet.

Lichen and moss

Lichen

Lichen

Lichen

Lichen

Moss

Moss

Pterostylis nutans Nodding Greenhood, with visitor.

Trim Greenhood Pterostylis concinna

Small Gnat Orchid Cyrtostylis reniformis

Creamy Candles Stackhousia monogyna, is just starting to flower.

Poranthera microphylla Small Poranthera

Hibbertia sericea var. sericea Silky Guinea-flower

Drosera aberrans Scented Sundew

Wattle

Heath Teatree  Leptospermum myrsinoides

Running Postman Kennedia prostrata