Myxomycetes

As promised, some video's on myxomycetes, starting with the most spectacular part of a German documentary on myxomycetes, showing the yellow plasmodium of Tilmadoche (= Trichia) polycephala in action in a maze in a Japanese laboratory :

Watch Schleimpilze 4 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

Followed by the parts 1, 2 and 3 of the same German documentory :

Watch Schleimpilze 1 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

Watch Schleimpilze 2 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

Watch Schleimpilze 3 Von 4 Online - VideoSurf Video Search

And by a less impressive video in French :

Watch Myxomycètes, Un Mystere De La Vie Online - VideoSurf Video Search

Just watched the first one.

That's nuts !

What amazing footage.

Thanks for posting Gerrit

I'll have to catch the others at home later.

Really should get some work done

.

well apart from not understanding what was said the was pretty impressive with the maze thing!

well apart from not understanding what was said the was pretty impressive with the maze thing!

Rob,

What among others is said, is that this one-celled organism seems to have a kind of "brain" making it possible to (re)orientate and regroup after it has been cut in pieces and then still can find a shortcut to the food outside the maze.

Rob,

What among others is said, is that this one-celled organism seems to have a kind of "brain" making it possible to (re)orientate and regroup after it has been cut in pieces and then still can find a shortcut to the food outside the maze.

I have long wondered if fungi (or microbial life in general) are in posession of a form of intelligence we do not yet recognise for it lacks a brain.

We only have to look to the Cetaceans to know how difficult humans find the acceptance of arguably a more intelligent presence than us upon the earth.

Are ants and bees not a great example of "community" also?

beautiful video links Gerrit, thanks for sharing, is the book available in english?

Very high quality time lapse photography revealing the beauty and "shock and awe" of the streams of the multinucleate mass of cytoplasm.

I guess it is easier for some of us (myself included) to accept that we are certainly not at the top of any pyramid when it comes to certain perspectives of 'intelligence'.

1. I have long wondered if fungi (or microbial life in general) are in posession of a form of intelligence we do not yet recognise for it lacks a brain.

2. is the book available in english?

Tony,

1. There are many examples of how the hypae of ectomycorrhizal macrofungi communicate with tree roots using pheromones to "ask" to be accepted as symbiotic partner, just as there are examples of tobacco plants of the same species communicating among each other with pheromones to warn others once one of them is attacked by flying green lice, which triggers its neighbours to produce poisonous defence substances in their leaves.

There is an American species of a parasitic Armillaria producing and mimicing the pheromones of ectomycorrhizal macrofungi to be "let in", that once penetrating the outer layers of a root, as a wolf in sheep's clothes develops into an aggressive parasite.

And another spectacular example of working together through communication is known of a tropical Acacia species with hollow spines housing small colonies of ants inside. The "cave" has two nipples, one producing liquid sugar to keep the ants inside and one alarm nipple deactivating the sugar nipple and secreting pheromones directing the ants to the outer foliage of the crown if the leaves are eaten by insects. As one can understand, the ants need both the daily sugar and a regular portion of the insects to survive.

2. You mean the Japanese book on myxomycetes ? I don't know and I don't have it, but I think looking at the photo's alone with the latin names underneath could also be worthwhile.

Is it all similar to allelopathy in plants and trees

Is it all similar to allelopathy in plants and trees

Rob,

And to the territorial warfare among macro- and microfungi each figting for their patch on/in a cow pat with fungicides and antibiotics produced by their mycelia and all of that in a strict order or succession. If you monitor a cow pat over time (stereo microscope), you can find up to 40 different species of micro- and macrofungi living in/on it until it crudely is recycled.

Tony,

1. There are many examples of how the hypae of ectomycorrhizal macrofungi communicate with tree roots using pheromones to "ask" to be accepted as symbiotic partner, just as there are examples of tobacco plants of the same species communicating among each other with pheromones to warn others once one of them is attacked by flying green lice, which triggers its neighbours to produce poisonous defence substances in their leaves.

There is an American species of a parasitic Armillaria producing and mimicing the pheromones of ectomycorrhizal macrofungi to be "let in", that once penetrating the outer layers of a root, as a wolf in sheep's clothes develops into an aggressive parasite.

And another spectacular example of working together through communication is known of a tropical Acacia species with hollow spines housing small colonies of ants inside. The "cave" has two nipples, one producing liquid sugar to keep the ants inside and one alarm nipple deactivating the sugar nipple and secreting pheromones directing the ants to the outer foliage of the crown if the leaves are eaten by insects. As one can understand, the ants need both the daily sugar and a regular portion of the insects to survive.

2. You mean the Japanese book on myxomycetes ? I don't know and I don't have it, but I think looking at the photo's alone with the latin names underneath could also be worthwhile.

Yes I know of the acacias and thier many thorn developments, but espoecialy love the one that blows its thorn bases up to make a house for colonies!

If more people took the time to see natures wonder i think "natural empathy" would be more abundant rather than waining