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Physarum polycephalum
This enigmatic slime mold moves using shuttle streaming, which is characterized by rhythmic back-and-forth flow of the protoplasm. Incredibly, this slime mold exhibits intelligent characteristics similar to those seen in single-celled creatures and social insects. For example, it is able to solve the shortest path problem - When grown in a maze, P. polycephalum will retract from everywhere in the maze, except the shortest route connecting the food sources, thus producing efficient networks by getting to the food using the shortest route. Amazing!
Habitat: Growing under bark on a fallen, rotting tree in a deciduous forest.
Spotted on Oct 23, 2018
Submitted on Oct 23, 2018
15 Comments
Thanks Jim and DrNamgyal!
Congrats Christine!
Perfect for Halloween!
Thank you Danièle! This delightfully creepy slime is one of my favorites :)
Gooey, oozey, creepy with a sheen, we've got you some slime for Halloween! And it's multi-headed! The Many-headed Slime (Physarum polycephalum) is our Spotting of the Day! Congratulations and thank you for this fantastic, timely contribution Christine!
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@Mark, lol - I'm sure it would be a tasty cake (X_X). Thanks Leuba :)
Is this some kind of halloween cake? ;-)
Great spotting Christine !
Thanks so much for the nomination! @Maria dB - yes! They are so freaky and awesome. There are some crazy slime lapse videos of them on youtube, which show them in motion :D
That is fascinating - the stuff of a sci fi or horror movie. :)
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Thanks Sunny :)
Great info... Thank you Christine..
Thanks Lauren! Slime molds are so fascinating!
Very cool!