Stats

Lifespan

A few weeks

Size

Huge

Diet

Decomposer

Biome

Temperate forest

Range

Worldwide

Movement

Sessile

Breeding

Spores

Defense

Camouflage

Status

Uncommon

About

This slime mold grows as a white, cushion-like mass on decaying alder tree trunks. It moves across bark as a single cell before hardening into a spore-filled sac.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   spore

   Dust-fine spores drift on wind and water, then germinate into single amoeboid cells.
2. 2.
   plasmodium

   Cells fuse into a creeping plasmodium — one mass of streaming protoplasm that engulfs bacteria as it spreads.
3. 3.
   fruiting body

   The plasmodium mounds into fruiting bodies that ripen from pink to brown and puff out spores.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Protozoa

Phylum

Mycetozoa

Class

Myxomycetes

Order

Reticulariales

Family

Reticulariaceae

Genus

Reticularia

Species

Reticularia lycoperdon