Slime Moulds


Slime moulds are a diverse group of organsims that are neither plants, animals nor fungi. They spend most of their life as microscopic single-celled amoeboid individuals in leaf litter, soil or decaying wood, and when conditions are right they reproduce and form a larger, spreading structure called a plasmodium, which in turn produces fruiting bodies (Secretive Slime Moulds: Myxomycetes of Australia By Steven L. Stephenson). 

For beginners, here is a “A Key to Common Genera of Slime Moulds” written and illustrated by Peta McDonald, a Melbourne primary school teacher: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/A_Key_to_Common_Genera_of_Slime_Moulds.pdf

A more technical key can be found in “Taxonomic Keys and Plates from The Myxomycetes”, a book by George W. Martin and Constantine J. Alexopoulos: https://www.myxotropic.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/MyxoKeys.pdf

For a photo gallery of slime moulds from around the world check out this one on a Spanish myxomycetes website: https://www.myxotropic.org/galeria/

Further information: 


Slime Moulds

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Discussion

Teresa wrote:
Yesterday
Terrific shots to show how the capillitium sheds so easily from the calyculus

Heterotrichia spp.
Teresa wrote:
Yesterday
@RoyP why do you think this is a myxo? Is that left on the wood, soft, sticky or is it the remains after the main body has desciated? Very interesting shots

Unverified Slime Mould
Teresa wrote:
Yesterday
Possibly a Lycogala sp still forming

Unverified Slime Mould
Heinol wrote:
25 Jun 2025
Perhaps a myxo for @Teresa

Unverified Slime Mould
Teresa wrote:
20 Jun 2025
Thanks

Myxomycete-plasmodium(class)
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