Slime Mould

Thought I'd finally bag this slime mould I have been keeping an eye on today since it looks particularly slimy in the wet.

Slime moulds are rather interesting since they are a single celled animal but behave rather like a whole animal, if you separate the cells they find their way back to each other.

You don't normally see slime moulds until they start to sporulate and become brightly coloured like these ones. They will eventually release a mass of spores, a bit like fungi with which they used to be classified.

Despite their appearance on lawns and dead wood they do not do much damage as they mostly eat bacteria and fungal spores and mycelia.