Minnesota Seasons - wolf’s milk slime mold

Conservation • Description • Habitat • Ecology • Distribution • Taxonomy

Conservation Status

Photo by Beth Harrington

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

not listed

Minnesota

not listed


	Description
	Wolf’s milk slime mold is a common and widespread plasmodial slime mold. It is found from June through November, usually in groups, sometimes scattered, on well rotted logs and other dead wood. The fruiting body is a plump, pillow-like mass (aethalium) of protoplasm enclosed in an surface crust. It looks like a small puffball. Each aethalium is globe-shaped to hemispherical and ⅛″ to ⅝″ in diameter. It is pink at first and filled with a pink paste that has a texture often compared to toothpaste. As it matures it becomes yellowish-brown to olive brown, darkening as it ages. The interior of a mature aethalium is a dry, powdery, pinkish-gray mass of spores. It is not edible.

	Similar Species



	Habitat and Hosts
	Logs and other dead wood


	Ecology
	Season
	June to November


	Distribution
			Sources 4, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.
	9/7/2022

	Occurrence
	Common and widespread across North Amerca


	Taxonomy
	Kingdom	Protozoa (protozoans)
	Phylum	Mycetozoa (slime molds)
	Class	Myxomycetes (true slime molds)
	Order	Liceales
	Family	Tubiferaceae
	Genus	Lycogala

	The taxonomy of slime molds changes frequently—it is a work in progress. ITIS (originally referred to as the Interagency Taxonomic Information System) places all slime molds in the Fungi kingdom. That is no longer accepted. ITIS places wolf’s milk slime mold in the Reticulariaceae family. National Center for Biotechnology Information Search database (NCBI) places it in the Enteridiidae family. Index Fungorum places it in the Tubiferaceae family. ITIS has spotty coverage of fungi species. NCBI is usually reliable but has the following disclaimer on every page: “The NCBI taxonomy database is not an authoritative source for nomenclature or classification - please consult the relevant scientific literature for the most reliable information.” Index Fungorum should be considered the final word on the taxonomy of fungi. But slime molds are no longer considered fungi. So-o-o …

	Synonyms
	wolf’s milk slime mold (Lycogala epidendrum var. cristatum) wolf’s milk slime mold (Lycogala epidendrum var. tessellatum)

	Common Names
	toothpaste slime wolf’s milk wolf’s milk slime wolf’s milk slime mold

Glossary

Aethalium

The large, pillow-like, fruiting body with an outer crust of some slime molds, formed by the fusion of many plasmodia into a single functional mass. Plural: aethalia.


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	Luciearl






	Honey Fae (Farah)




	Beth Harrington

	on a downed log in a wetlands area




	MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos

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	Slideshows


	Lycogala epidendrum ginann




	Lycogala epidendrum Markus Kauppinen

slideshow


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	Other Videos


	Wolf's Milk Slime/ Lycogala epidendrum The Roaming Gnome...Glenn Munro! VRCM/SkyWarn

	About Published on May 13, 2016 Little round, reddish pink balls. Exudes pinkish-grey paste when popped. Listed as inedible. This specimen was located in central missouri.



	Nature Insights - The Wolf's Milk Slime Mold at Spier's Old School Grounds Roger Griffith

	About Published on Oct 30, 2014 These pink blobs represent huge single celled Wolf's Milk or Wolf's Blood slime molds with thousands of nuclei that reach this size following long periods of feeding on bacteria, yeast, etc. The feeding stage is called a syncytium and the aethial stage is the reproductive stage where the mold goes a brown colour and changes into thousands of spores that are dispersed by wind, rain, etc.

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Visitor Sightings

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Luciearl 9/19/2023	Location: Cass County



Luciearl 11/9/2022	Location: Fairview Twp, Cass Co.



Honey Fae (Farah) 8/6/2022	Location: Dakota County



Honey Fae (Farah) 5/26/2021	Location: Hennepin County



Luciearl 10/3/2019	Location: Fairview Twp., Cass County



Beth Harrington 10/4/2018	Location: SW Rochester, MN on a downed log in a wetlands area



MinnesotaSeasons.com Sightings