A slime mould - Trichia decipiens
Introduction
The photograph on this page of A slime mould - Trichia decipiens by Lairich Rig as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 9 Aug 2016
This slime mould is most eye-catching at an earlier stage of development: Image It then became darker and less glutinous in appearance, with a translucent stalk. When mature, the thin outer layer (peridium) of the upper part dehisces (breaks open); in this case, it occurred along a neat circular line at the top, as shown in the picture. This exposes the capillitium, which is the fluffy-looking structure inside; it bears the spores themselves on elaters. Elaters are thread-like structures that change shape in response to humidity, ensuring that the spores are dispersed in the right conditions; some liverworts employ similarly-functioning structures (which are also called elaters) in the same way: see Image