Chocolate tube slime

Description:

The brownish, cylindrical top portions (sporangia) are supported by narrow, black stalks.

Habitat:

Chocolate tube slime look like brown hairs growing on wood. While not fungi, slime molds often form spore-bearing structures that resemble those of the true fungi. Although many slime mold species fruit on wood they do not form a penetrating and absorptive mass of hyphae in the wood substrate. Rather, slime molds form structures called plasmodia which are naked (i.e., without cell walls) masses of protoplasm which can move and engulf particles of food in an amoeboid manner. Slime mold plasmodia creep about over the surfaces of materials, engulfing bacteria, spores of fungi and plants, protozoa, and particles of nonliving organic matter. At some point, plasmodia convert into spore-bearing structures. In Stemonitis, the plasmodium converts into a clustered mass of stalked sporangia.

Notes:

Inedible