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/