ID for a tree testicle fungus, please!

[JenW73]

Thanks all. I thought it was a sycamore but I only glanced at the leaves tbh. I'll check tomorrow, will photo leaves if I'm in any doubt. I saw the Alfred Cake thingys online but they looked almost sooty,  very different from this weird growth. The first time I saw it, it was raining heavily so it was wet. It looked almost translucent, jelly like, with a sort of structure to be seen beneath. I was really surprised how solid it was when I poked it. To be updated!

Oh, re the slug, I've kept giant land snails before, so I was aware of their strange mating habits. Attenborough narrated a couple of them twirling in trees being amorous in one of his old series, but those leopard slugs were not in the UK, they were somewhere much warmer and were massive, about a foot long if I recall. If you ever wanted to witness a snail/slug orgy, all you have to do is collect a bunch of them, stick 'em in a tub and watch in wonder as they all grow willies out their necks and start stabbing each other with them. Then a week later, tiny snails, everywhere! It's fascinating. Some might say gross but I say fascinating! Anyways, cheers, I'll be back! 

[Paul in the woods]

13 hours ago, JenW73 said:

 I saw the Alfred Cake thingys online but they looked almost sooty,  very different from this weird growth. The first time I saw it, it was raining heavily so it was wet. It looked almost translucent, jelly like, with a sort of structure to be seen beneath. I was really surprised how solid it was when I poked it. To be updated!

If you search for young specimens they can be light pink/grey https://first-nature.com/fungi/daldinia-concentrica.php

 

However, it still sounds like a slime mould to me, Reticularia lycoperdon which now seems to be called Enteridium lycoperdon aka false puffball. This pic looks a bit dangly

https://spotwild.org/en/type/chPEiZ/false-puffball

Edited September 13, 2022 by Paul in the woods

[JenW73]

So, definitely a sycamore, that is, Acer Pseudoplatanus

 

Pics attached, might explain the confusion over the bark. 

 

The growth is now dried out, skin a little cracked and when I pulled it slightly away from the trunk, it felt like cork bark. It was providing shelter for two slugs, an isopod and a teeny tiny red spider. 

 

Should I remove it and cut it open, see if that can shed any light? Honestly, it doesn't really matter, I'm just a naturally curious person and I found myself intrigued when I couldn't ID it!

 

[openspaceman]

In the absence of an in focus close up of an individual leaf and from the fruits and paler green colour I would have said norway maple

Edited September 13, 2022 by openspaceman
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