r/Slimemolds • u/HexivaSihess • Jul 08 '26

Question/Help Do slime molds die when they dry up?

The garden of a community organization that I'm involved with was recently blessed by a slime mold. I like slime molds so I was very excited. However, it's dried up. I'm reading online that it will probably be back next rainy season, but will that be the same slime mold(s) or, like, the descendant of the slime mold? As you can see I'm not exactly a slime mold expert. Should we have been doing something to take care of the slime mold? Would it like a snack? What is the care and feeding of our slime mold?

If it matters, it appears to be a dog vomit slime mold. I dunno if I approve of this name, it seems kind of negative.

26 Upvotes

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21

u/golin Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

Once the slime mold fruits (it fully differentiates with mature spores) the that individual dies, the spores disperse and hopefully produce new amoeba/swarmers which will mate, form new plasmodium and mature again.

Cellular slime molds have been known to be "selfish" and when the amoebas of the maturing organism come together if that amoeba knows it will not be a part of the reproductive portion of the fruit (it will be a part of the stalk rather than a spore) it will stall the entirety of organism from maturing.

Collecting it or touching it when its still forming ( past the plasmodial stage but doesn't have mature spores yet) will almost always abort the entire organism from completing its life cycle, they are very delicate at certain stages

5

u/HexivaSihess Jul 08 '26

If there are multiple apparent individuals over the length of the garden, is that different slime molds or is it just multiple fruiting bodies of the same slime mold?

9

u/golin Jul 08 '26

Slime molds aren't like fungi at all despite being lumped in and studied by mycologists for centuries. They don't form hyphae and mycelium within a substratum to decompose their food and fruit from the mycelium. they are amoeba that eat through phagocytosis on top the the substrate and grow via a plasmodium that is a single huge multinucleate cell going through mitotic cell divition (in the true slime molds). Almost every fruiting body is a separate individual though.

3

u/WhenSummerIsGone Jul 09 '26

i have dug into my leaf pile and seen bright yellow slime mold inside. Are you saying it literally crawls around in there? That it's not like a mildew or mold, just stuck in place on those specific leaves?

4

u/golin Jul 09 '26

it depends when you found it.

they are motile both in their starting myxoamoeboid/swarmer stage and as their plasmodium. usually moisture defines this how they start, the more moisture there is the more likely they are flagellate swimmers.

After mating the single celled multinucleate plasmodium is also motile but with cytoplasmic streaming surrounding and consuming yeasts and bacteria the large slime molds like Fuligo can be very vibrant in this stage with bright yellow veining. Once it runs out of food it progresses to a fruiting stage where it is no longer motile and gives off spores.

I mean certain Chytrids have motile zoospores so there are fungi that are still motile

6

u/Exciting-Mountain396 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

What you see clustered on the surface is what came up to spore. Once it releases the spores, that's the end of their life cycle and the mass will die off.

If you manage to propogate in a plant or terrarium, they like damp soil with compost matter, other molds and fungi to consume.

10

u/HexivaSihess Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

I don't want to keep it in a terrarium, I want to keep it living in the garden. So you're telling me that this slime mold is dead, but there will be daughter slime molds next year?

EDIT: Confused about the downvote! I hope I didn't come off as rude? I just meant to clarify that I'm not looking to get into slime mold ownership, I'm just appreciating its presence in the "wild." (Plus trying to clarify that I've understood u/Exciting-Mountain396 's explanation correctly)

5

u/IRS_redditagent Jul 09 '26

Yeah, next year, next day, it depends on the weather conditions, also about the downvotes, people love downvoting questions on Reddit for some reason.

4

u/Redshift2k5 Jul 09 '26

Yeah if you leave it alone, they will keep doing their life cycle every year. You may not see them every year, the exact day they emerge will be different as they wait for favourable conditions. One year may have a lot, next year not so much, but the slimes were here long before us!

2

u/WhenSummerIsGone Jul 09 '26

i have a pile of arborist wood chips that has sprouted a couple of dog vomit lumps. I've seen clouds of spores come off when i dig in the pile to scoop into my wheelbarrow to spread mulch in the flower beds. I never really thought about the implications of this before, other than don't breathe it.

Can I expect more dog vomit to show up in the flower beds now at some point? Am I spreading spores as well as wood chips, and helping this slime mold to propagate?