Gardening in Alaska : Got Slime Mold?

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Gardening in Alaska presents big challenges, whether it's the extra effort in finding plants tough enough to survive our Zone 2-4 climate, communicating with like-minded Alaska gardeners, or keeping up with the latest trends, issues and solutions. We'll try to help with that. We'll also tour gardens from Homer to Anchorage to Wasilla to Willow whenever we get the chance, and post the best garden photos around. Presenting a forum about cold-weather gardening and for cold-weather gardeners is what we are all about. We hope you'll join us on the Talk Dirt garden blog.

Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.

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Got Slime Mold?

Posted by talkdirt

Posted: June 22, 2009 - 5:50 pm

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It appears out of nowhere, like a ninja dressed head to toe in black, and creeps down the path silently, oozing up in the gravelled crevices between the flagstones I have placed so carefully.

At first it looks as if something snuck into the yard while my back was turned and plotzed! But in actuality, I'm being slimed again.

Not slime like fish slime or silly party slime, but slime as in a living organism - slime mold.

Slime mold first appeared in my rock path two summers ago after it began raining and the same thing happened last year and now this summer as well after we had a decent rain. At first, I was so embarrassed by it's appearance that I couldn't bring myself to write about it but now it's nothing new and I know I can just scoop it out and throw it away.Slime mold is a living organism that feeds on bacteria found in bark mulch. Photo by Fran Durner

According to a fact page on the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Service website, "Slime molds are members of a shape-shifting group of organisms called myxomycetes. These organisms are found all over the world, even in deserts, high altitudes, and on the edges of snowbanks. Although they often resemble fungi, slime molds are more closely related to amoebas and certain seaweeds."

And they come in different colors - from yellows to browns to red. However, nowhere have I found anything on black slime mold.

Yikes! I wondered if it had anything to so with all the rock I have collected off beaches, but the culprit, I believe, is actually the bark mulch that was spread years ago and acts as the anchor base for the flagstones. Apparently, it also feeds the organism with the bacteria found in the mulch. So as long as the bark mulch is there, there will be slime mold. Since I have no intention of digging up my yard and since I know the slime mold is harmless, it will just have to be another one of the wondrous things growing there.

If this was only crude oil bubbling to the surface instead of slime mold.... Photo by Fran DurnerI brought a sample of it into the Anchorage office of the CES today and delivered it, as a gift, to Michael Rasy, the IPM technician. This is what Michael had to say about it when I emailed him with photos last year, "Perhaps we could have a slime mold viewing tour, sort of like a garden tour. This is a beautiful organism, just like a flower, only it looks like poop. Isn’t nature wild." I can't say he looked as enthused while looking into a container full of my shiny black mold.