A mystery...

There's something weird going on. This is a picture of our long-term mulch pile. Its where we throw tree clippings, weeds we've pulled, and various other things that won't decay fast enough to use as mulch right away.


Here is a close up of the same mulch pile. There is a greenish-yellow goo underneath everything, it extends throughout the entire mulch pile. I know. I poked it with a stick. It is a little scary because it jiggles like its alive and must be the inspiration for a bad alien movie.


The goo was there before NJ was bombarded by the rain monster. But in the recent steady-month-of-rain, I have discovered that it has spread to my outdoor potted plants, which are located no where near the mulch pile.


The shiny parts, where it looks like the soil is wet, is actually that jelly-like goo. The weird thing is that it is a peach-yellow-red color in the mulch pile. In the pots, it is clear.


I used a stick to scrape it off the top of the soil, so some of the clear bits got dirty, but I managed to keep one piece dirt-free. Interesting to note is that it has that sunlight-through-a-glass effect like a magnifying glass.


It gives off no odor, does not appear to have any root system or a base like a mushroom would, has no visible spores, does not appear to have a nucleus like a fertilized egg sac of some sort, and it bounces.


A google search did not reveal anything useful. A few other people have had similar questions but no one has provided answers. "Slime mold" is an actual mold, but none of its variations seem to look anything like this. Of several species of jelly fungi none look like this. The closest wikipedia article I could find was on a bacterial colony eaten in Asia called Nostoc or Fat Choy. It looks like this on the inside, but the outside forms small circles, rather than just a big shapeless blob. (Note: Nostoc is considered toxic by some scientists but apparently the Asians don't care. It seems they will eat anything, but thats a mystery for another day.) The last possible explanation (for some- but its not suitable for me) is that it is star jelly, which is a compound of organic matter of extraterrestrial origin that falls to earth during meteor showers.

If anyone reading this is better at web research than I am, feel free to try and find an answer. For now I have to assume that I somehow have Flubber living in my yard.

(Note: I wish this website had pictures: http://gardenline.usask.ca/yards/slime2.html This describes it pretty well except that its not in the lawn, and has been around for quite a long time without having developed "fruiting bodies" or spores. Apparently, its not confined to NJ either, as this link from the UK shows: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1000481)