The gentle rhythmic swish of scythes can be heard in the depths of Finemere Wood. Seven scythers swing and sway in harmony with the symphony of birdsong. It is a wholesome sight. The season of grass cutting has begun.
Nature is moving at such great speed, turn your back for just a minute and the paths through the wood will have become an impenetrable tangle of bramble and rose. The woodland workers must ensure that the way is clear for those who venture into this wild and wonderful wood.
Grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees are bursting into bloom. Bluebells dazzle in bountiful splendour. But there are other forms of life to be spotted by keen eyes. Single-celled, amoeba-like organisms, invisible to the naked eye, are creeping around engulfing bacteria, fungal spores and other micro-organisms.
Often mistaken for fungi, these slime moulds thrive in moist shady environments such as the nooks and crannies of dead wood. It is only when these cells stop moving, gathering together to reproduce and form a fruiting body, that they are perceptible.
Wolf’s milk slime mould (Lycogala epidendrum / terrestre) has small pinkish-orange almost-spherical fruiting bodies, no bigger than 15 mm in diameter. Inside each one is a gloopy substance of the same colour, which as it matures becomes a mass of powdery spores. Eventually the fruit erupts spreading its spores far and wide and the life cycle begins again. Also known as Toothpaste slime mould, this fascinating life form is named after the gunge in its fruiting body.
There are many slime moulds oozing around Finemere Wood. Look out for Fuligo septica or Dog vomit slime mould, another specimen recently spotted .
Much grass was cut on this unexpectedly bright and humid day. The warming rays of the sun caressing away the aches and pains of a long, cold, dreary Winter. The motion of scything kick-starting a new energy.
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