May 2022 • Nebraskaland 29
one with a twig and out oozed a bubblegum-colored paste
containing the developing spores. It's not clear why pink
ooze would lead to the name of wolf's milk, but such is the
privilege of naming.
Within days, the fruiting bodies' pink color will fade, and
then they will disintegrate into a brown powdery smudge.
The powder is millions of microscopic, ripe spores.
He next pointed to a cluster of tiny red dots that he calls red
lollipops (Hemitrichia calyculata). Only through my camera's
macro lens could I make out their narrow stalks topped
by round, red fruiting heads calling to mind the childhood
delicacy of cherry Tootsie Pops, but only a fraction of an inch
tall. Seeing the stalked heads, I grasped how slime molds
Wolf's milk growing at
Indian Cave State Park
on Brueggemann's
prized slime mold log.
Coral slime.
