Skyline to the sea trail

This weekend’s hike: 20.9 miles, 4400 feet of climb. Saratoga gap to Waterman gap, then over to the Toll road, a connector through a damp area where I got the following pictures. A detour around the Michael’s summit loop off the toll road, and then back to Saratoga summit.

Nice.

Although it’s hard to imagine a big enough insect to produce this much biomass, I originally thought these were insect eggs, and indeed their common name is insect egg mass fungi. Upon further research, I believe they are actually Leocarpus fragilis, a slime mold.

Tags: insect egg mass fungi, Leocarpus fragilis, slime molds