Slime Moulds (Myxomycetes)

Eagle-eyed Barry Webb notices the ethereal beauty of tiny subjects. Tracy Calder hears the story behind one of his award-winning pictures

- Barry Webb

Slime moulds are curious things – neither plant nor fungi, they share similar characteristics and yet exist in a class of their own, known as Myxomycetes. These primitive organisms thrive on decaying plant material, which might explain why Barry Webb can often be found prostrate on the forest floor, rooting around in brambles and bracken looking for leaves and logs that may bear fruit. Barry has been photographing slime moulds since 2019 when he and his wife, Gill, attended a walk with the Bucks Fungus Group and somebody spotted a stemonitis. Barry was tasked with photographing it and dutifully set to work.

‘I didn’t have a loupe with me so I couldn’t see it that closely, but when I focus stacked it, I was amazed by what I discovered,’ he recalls. The next day Barry and Gill were out walking when they came across a group of slime moulds on a big log. ‘They were like little white sausages on sticks,’ laughs Barry. These encounters piqued his interest, and he was soon researching and photographing slime moulds whenever he could.