Cultivation

Cultivation. Life, habits, morphology...

Physarum

Captured in the nature, Physarum cinereum is able to be cultivated for years and grow up to any size.

Sclerotia and sporangia are easy to make. Physarum sclerotizes in several hours. If kept at room temperature, almost all sclerotia are viable after several months, nearly a half - after one year, practically no - after two. Sporulates in one day in "classical" conditions: light, dry, no food.

on a slippery substrate veins form meanders, like rivers

Sclerotium. Thickness - several tenth of mm.

Plasmodium and sporangia

Sporangia.

(Image made from 14 frames with CombineZP)

Fuligo

Big and healthy plasmodium of Fuligo can be distinguished from Physarum at first sight (find differences!:)

Sclerotia are completely different from Physarum's. And process of their forming too.

Normal sclerotization takes roughly 2 days. Nearly 2/3 of sclerotia are viable after one year.

First stage of Fuligo sclerotization is bright and beautiful. And looks like beginning of fructification. Both these states are reversible.

Later it converts to something like small rough brown heap.

Thickness is up to 1 cm.

Crossed-eye stereophoto

ready sclerotium: with dried outer layer

Grows normally only in darkness. When exposed to light, even usual room illumination, veins often break, and cytoplasm flow in a few seconds creates "swellings", up to 1 cm and more (it shows significant pressure inside veins!). The "swellings" can suddenly enlarge more, and they also demonstrate some pulsation. Then they slowly disappear.

This is much more intensive than in Physarum.

more about feeding

Quite strong cellulolytic (more concretely, paper-eating) activity is easily seen in Fuligo plasmodia.

Physarum cinereum does not show any.

If you let the plasmodium to crawl in a dish with wet paper for several days, the paper will become much more soft, unable to be pulled away as a whole.

It will be not the end, if you dry the dish for making a sclerotium.

(An ordinary paper for printer on all photos)

One more: view from above and below. Left is mirrored for easy comparison.

When the paper is almost dry, plasmodium begins to eat it vigorously.

Distinguishing features

So, there are many clear differences between Fuligo and Physarum plasmodia. Fuligo:

- becomes brownish-red in places of damage;
- forms very thick veins, up to 2mm, protruding out of plasmodium by bigger part of diameter;
- can form very thin (~0.1 mm) fan-like edges;
- moves twice slower (0.5 cm/hour);
- easily creeps through microscopic holes in usual paper without leaving visible damages;
- can eat paper (when hungry or intends to sclerotize);
- is more omnivorous in general (eats even oat flakes), but badly eats big pieces of mushrooms. Likes powdered food;
- smells clearly differently;
- sclerotization is much slower;
- sclerotium is completely different;
- is much more sensitive to light;
- is much more viable (can live for more than month in one dish without new feeding. Physarum - no more than 3 - 4 days);
- does not sporulate despite this:( In contrast to results of papers linked below.

It seems, ability to flow through microscopic holes, sensitivity to light and slow sclerotization are connected with life inside wood/earth, unlike corticolous Physarum.

Some links:

Patricia M. Scholes (1962): Some Observations on the Cultivation, Fruiting and Germination of Fuligo septica.

Journal of General Microbiology 29 (1962): 137-148

Bao-Yu Yang (1972): Fuligo cinerea reported from Taiwan: some observations on its plasmodia, sclerotia, spore germination and fructification.

Taiwania 17(1): 107-115

(apparently, F. septica according to modern classification)

Claudia Kobilansky, Franz Schinner (1988): Cellulolytic, xylanolytic and pectinolytic activities of myxomycetes.

Journal of General Microbiology 34 (1988): 321-332

(work on Physarales, Trichiales and Stemonitales plasmodia, incl. experiment with paper degrading)

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