Last May I posted an image of a strange, gelatinous, yellow organism, which I had photographed a few years ago at a little park overlooking Snoqualmie Falls in Washington state.
I guessed it to be a fungus. About 2″ – 3″ in diameter, it lay in a damp, grassy area strewn with pine needles frequently misted by the nearby falls.
A few days ago, I posted the photo on the Project Noah web site as an “unknown spotting” and today received notice that it has been identified as “Witches’ butter—Tremella mesenterica” along with a link to a brief Missouri Dept. of Conservation article on the fungus.
Project Noah was launched in 2010 from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program to mobilize citizen scientists and build a “digital butterfly net” for the 21st century. It’s a wide-open digital platform for documenting the world’s organisms and collecting ecological data.
Once my photo was identified, I was able to view many other images of Witches’ butter that have been posted to Project Noah from all over the planet. There are already 682,256 spottings of various organisms posted to the project. It will be interesting to see how all that data will be sorted, analyzed and interpreted.
Richardson's rummage 
Interesting. Good to know about this web site. Kellie C
Nice article on it from Missouri, a parasite’s parasite. I like all the other things going on in your close-up. Lodgepole pine needles, are they? And the lovely moss and bluegrass (I think it is).
Gary, Nice posting. Thanks for sharing the Project Noah link. I can remember wandering the forest of SW Oregon as a kid and discovering so many interesting plants and animals. Wish I was physically able to hike in the hills of Idaho, as every season has its special offering of nature’s beautiful bounty. Thanks for sharing.
G.o.V aka Grumpie ol’ Vic