What is this blob in a mulched garden?
Dog vomit slime mold! Also known as witch’s spit, troll cat vomit (In Scandinavia mythical troll cats were said to steal milk from cows and regurgitate it for witches), and scrambled egg slime (as it first looks bright yellow). Despite the ominous names, dog vomit slime mold does not harm people, pets, or plants.
Although they resemble mushrooms, slime molds are more closely related to amoebas. Dog vomit slime mold grows worldwide on plant debris, rotten wood, and most conspicuously on well-watered mulch. The spores wait for the weather to be warm and wet enough, then form essentially a giant cell with thousands of nuclei but no individual cell walls. This plasmodium stage acts like an amoeba, slowly flowing and engulfing bacteria and fungi. Dog vomit slime mold can appear almost overnight with its oozing growth of roughly 1 millimeter per hour – check out this time lapse of the mesmerizing pulsating. When food is scarce, it dries and hardens to form a multicellular spore-producing structure, eventually becoming a dusty lump of dark spores.
Interesting!! Awful names for it!