Slime Mold

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Slime molds are among the oddest creatures of the rainforest. These frequently brightly coloured organisms represent an interphase between the multicellular bodies of plants and animals and the unicellular world of amoebas and other protists. These strange creatures live much of their lives as single-celled organisms but individuals eventually meld into a “super-cell” called a plasmodium, which is bounded by a single-cell membrane but contains many cellular nuclei.

This strange conglomerate being is observable in the forest as threads of brightly coloured “slime” creeping over rotting logs. This plasmodium is able to move through a process called “cytoplasmic streaming” as it hunts for microscopic prey along the forest floor. These plasmodiums can cover an area of 30 square metres despite being technically a “single” cell. When the food supply is exhausted the slime mold develops fruiting bodies to seed the forest with its spores.

Lab research has shown that despite lacking a brain or even a nervous system, slime molds appear capable of rudimentary learning, memory and problem solving. In one experiment slime molds even appeared to be able to learn from one another. These bizarre, contradictory creatures of the coastal rainforest are challenging our basic understanding of cognition, expanding our understanding of thought and memory.

Perhaps even more intriguing, the filamentous networks of slime molds are actually structurally very similar to the “cosmic web” of galaxies strung across the universe. Cosmologists have now started using slime-mold patterns to predict and understand the structure of the Universe and to help them map out the distribution of the enigma known as “dark matter”.

The careful hiker in the coastal rainforest will be on guard for inclement weather, unexpected cliffs, and possible bear encounters, but few will be prepared for the perils of drastic mind expansion that may result from an encounter with a slime mold.

Many old-growth forests where slime mold is found aren’t currently protected from logging. We encourage you to speak up for big trees and ancient forests in BC by sending an instant message to the BC government today.

Carnivorous Sundews

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Rather than make its food through photosynthesis, carnivorous sundews, like the ones seen here, supplement their diet by feeding on insects! The tiny tentacles have a sticky dew or “mucilage” on them to help trap and digest their prey for a hearty meal.

Known by the Haida First Nation as “many hearts,” the sundew is a dynamic plant revered for its medicinal properties and as a good luck charm for fishing. The nitrogen-starved wetlands they thrive in, take thousands of years to develop and are home to a variety of beautiful life forms, including mosses, herbaceous plants, shrubs, trees, and fungi, not to mention these brightly coloured creatures!

These ‘botanical oddballs’ can be found in hot, humid areas such as Georgia and Florida in the US, but the majority are found in Australia and South Africa. In BC, they can be found in the bog forests along the coast, such as the Shorepine Bog Trail near Tofino – look very close at the ground next time you’re walking there!

Tooth-Leaved Monkeyflower

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A rare and beautiful flower, the yellow tooth-leaved monkeyflower (Erythranthe dentata), in Canada, is restricted to a handful of valleys on southwestern Vancouver Island. This diminutive rainforest resident prefers the rich floodplain forests that grow along the valley bottoms, which are home to the largest and most magnificent old-growth trees. These forests are now exceedingly rare, as their massive trees have been a target for logging for well over 100 years, leaving the flower as a blue-listed species of concern.

However, during springtime in BC, you still might catch a glimpse of the tooth-leaved monkeyflower brightening the forest floor in places such as the Nitinat River Provincial Park in Ditidaht territory; its pretty petals a tiny but lovely emblem of these grand and once-abundant ancient forests.

Redwood Sorrel

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Looking like an oversized clover, the redwood sorrel (oxalis oregana) is one of BC’s loveliest and rarest rainforest plants, found only in a few scattered sites on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii.

Because they have adapted to live on the shady forest floor, these plants are actually light-sensitive and will fold their leaves to protect themselves from intense sunlight. When the late afternoon sun creeps into a sorrel colony, the lucky observer will see thousands of leaves folding to ward off the glare.

On Vancouver Island, these exceedingly rare old-growth sorrel gardens reach their most magnificent expression in the Klanawa Valley in Huu-ay-aht territory. In these enchanted groves along the banks of the Klanawa River, delicate carpets of sorrel flowers and fairybell lilies are braided with wildlife trails made by Roosevelt elk, black bears, and coastal wolves, giving the impression of a manicured garden and trails deep in the rainforest. The idyllic forest scenes here are among the most beautiful we have ever encountered.

 

Moss

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Like a botanical Clark Kent, these unassuming plants are hiding superhero qualities. Not only does moss have the ability to absorb liquids up to 20 times their weight, but they also act as insulation for soil and tree roots – either keeping it cool or warming it up. They help to colonize areas affected by deforestation and wildfires, and in extreme temperatures, they can go dormant in order to survive. 

 

Mosses date back 450 million years, with up to 25,000 known species. They are found on every continent, even the frigid wastes of Antarctica! They are non-flowering plants, and instead of roots, they have rhizoids, which are like tiny hairs that fix the moss to surfaces such as soil, tree bark, or rock.

 

On the BC coast, Bigleaf Maples – like the ones found in Mossome Grove and Mossy Maple Grove – can harbour enormous amounts of moss on their branches due to their calcium-rich bark, which is one of five minerals needed for moss to grow. This relationship is symbiotic, as the maples deploy aerial roots to access nutrients in the soils that develop under these moss mats.

 

Another important function of moss is as a Marbled Murrelet’s nest. Marbled Murrelets are a species of seabird found in coastal BC. They don’t build conventional nests, rather, they find a wide branch with thick moss high in an old-growth forest to lay their egg. Because only giant old-growth trees have branches large enough to support the huge cushions of moss that murrelets require for nesting, murrelets are dependent on the vanishing old-growth forests for their survival.

 

Next time you’re walking in an old-growth forest, remember that you’re walking among superheroes.