The woodland next to the Croft has recently been cut, leaving the tracks covered in wood chips. I run along these tracks most days.
Recently I've tried not to step on this:
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| Cowpat? Dog vomit? Stale bread roll? |
At first it was yellow and fluffy - I thought it was some effect caused by horse urine. Then it dried out and turned cream-brown, so maybe it was a cowpat (there are no free cows around here, so unlikely)?
I broke off a piece, and saw the spores, so it had to be a fungus or a mould.
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| Scores of spores |
It turns out that it is a slime mould, Fuligo septica, also known, charmingly, as "dog vomit slime mould". It grows on moist wood chip and mulch.
Welcome to weird nature!