I’ve never seen anything this purple in Indiana and I did not see these when I initially picked up this little piece of wood. There were some tiny white spots on the wood that I was curious about and was photographing when the purple caught my eye. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited to see little fruiting bodies of a slime mold as much as I was to see these. They are barely visible to the naked eye, which is why I missed them until I was looking through an extreme macro lens.

There are spectacularly iridescently purple slime molds in more temperate states and countries but not in Indiana and some day I will hunt them down. For now, I’m thrilled with this find.