Kenneth Ramos's Page

"The sporangia are well formed as are the rest of the fruitbody components and spores are released but a dust cloud is seldom noticed but only on occasion and during observation through the dissecting microscope and slide preparation for observing…"

"I keep the plasmodia in the dark, with the exception of removal for observation with the dissecting microscope.  Using moist chamber cultures, petri dishes (plastic or borosilicate) with dampened paper towel and oat flakes.  I don't…"

"What is it that you mean by "induced sporulation?"  Sporulation is a touchy process.  As you probably already know, temperature, humidity, and light among the most prominent are major players in getting a plasmodium to…"

"I don't have any specimens on hand but I used the rough bark of a Flowering Dogwood to prepare moist culture chambers.  Other substrates may be just as productive.  Incubation time was about 21 days for P. roseum.  Soak the bark…"

"Do you still keep roseum? If so, you wouldn't happen to have extra sclerotia would you?"

"Most anything from the Permian fascinates me because so little survived from it towards the end.  These could easily be mistaken for slime mold plasmodia I suppose but more along the line of an alga of sorts or maybe a fern of some kind. …"

"Microsoft PowerPoint - IsoHandbook.2 (uark.edu) Culturing slime molds from the environment. Hope this helps you get started."

"Personally I don't know of any slime mold fruit bodies showing up in the fossil record other than in amber maybe, along with  spore or two.  You present some very good questions though, ones that I wish I could knowledgeably discuss…"

"Try using a dry cell and two electrodes one (+) the other (-) of course and place them at opposite sides of the petri dish.  Attach the battery or dry cell and observe what happens.  A single AA battery should suffice, if not try a D…"

"I too have problems with fungal hyphae.  It seems no sooner than I begin a new moist chamber the mold seems to be waiting.  The bumps or tracks that you see on the agar are just that, plasmodia for the most part do leave what I have often…"

"Most  of the Physarum I have obtained through moist chamber cultures have all been yellow in color, however, I read where the color can sometimes be due to the pH of the substrate on which the plasmodium resides.  Again, however,…"

"Why are they adverse to light?   Good question, I am not sure of that myself but reading your post had me looking at positive and negative phototaxis and how it plays out in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.  I did not quite find…"