Chocolate Tube Slime Mold – 9/13/24
Observer: Paul Lauenstein
Observation Date: 9/13/24
Observation Time: 1:40 p.m.
Observation Location: Borderland State Park
Common Name: Chocolate Tube Slime Mold
Scientific Name: Stemonitis splendens
Comments: Slime molds are neither plants nor animals. They are members of the phylum Amoebozoa, and are related to amoeba. Slime molds are aggregates of single-celled organisms. Some kinds of slime molds can grow up to 9 feet long! Slime molds typically aggregate to form a plasmodium — a multinucleate mass of undifferentiated cells that may move in an ameboid-like fashion during the search for nutrients. Slime molds are examples of cellular communication and differentiation, and may provide insights into how multicellular organisms develop.
More Information: Foster’s Daily Democrat
On the intelligence of slime molds: https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/thinking-without-a-brain/