On 15 November 2017 I saw a large white plasmodium at the base of a living stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) and started to monitor its changing shape and colour as it matured. This species – Paradiachea caespitosa – has appeared in the same location in previous years, i.e. close to the big tree on ‘big tree track’. There was no rain as it developed so the matured sporangia made a good collection.
I photographed the collection (using photo stacks) with a Canon DSLR 70D camera attached to a stereo microscope. It is interesting to note that the iridescent colour of the peridium is mostly golden, with only several purple sporangia, compared with the mostly purple sporangia depicted in an earlier post.
The peridium of this species is extremely fragile and if any small invertebrates are inadvertently collected and they walk on the sporangia, the peridium will be fragmented.
P. caespitosa is usually common at Black Sugarloaf in the warmer months (November to January) but I am yet to see it in 2018.
