The Slime Mold Master Directory

Welcome to the Master Directory.

While the yellow Physarum polycephalum gets all the fame, it is just one of nearly 1,000 known species in the class Myxomycetes. These organisms range from vibrant pink spheres to blue ghostly webs, and each has its own “superpower.”

Here are the most significant species you will encounter in the wild and the lab.

1. The Superstars

Physarum roseum (Pink Physarum)

The rare, “cool cousin” of the yellow blob.

• The Vibe: Vibrant pink or red.
• The Power: Unlike most blobs that crawl on their food, P. roseum is a “burrower.” It literally tunnels into the agar to eat it from the inside.
• Fun Fact: It smells like iodine (medical supply closet). If you find one in the wild, you’ve found a biological treasure.

Fuligo septica (Dog Vomit Slime Mold)

The outdoor champion.

• The Vibe: A massive, yellow, foamy mass that looks like… well, look at the name.
• The Power: It is highly resistant to toxic heavy metals. It uses a pigment called fuligocentre to neutralize zinc and other toxins.
• Fun Fact: Some Andean tribes traditionally eat this species (scrambled with eggs).

2. The Specialists

Badhamia utricularis

The choice for citizen science.

• The Vibe: Greyish-white droplets found on decaying wood.
• The Power: It is incredibly easy to “hunt” in European forests and and adapts fast to lab conditions.
• Use Case: Used in the famous “Derrière le blob, la recherche” project with thousands of students.

Didymium (The Aquatic Blob)

The water-lover.

• The Vibe: Small, white, delicate spheres.
• The Power: Much more comfortable in wet environments than Physarum. Often found in terrariums and near pond edges.

Lycogala (Wolf’s Milk)

The “Candy” blob.

• The Vibe: Small pink spheres that look exactly like Tagada strawberry candies.
• The Power: They don’t form large networks. Instead, they grow as individual spheres that increase in volume. If you poke them, they “bleed” a pink, milky liquid. (Don’t eat them; they aren’t actually candy).

3. The Giants of Science

Dictyostelium discoideum (The Social Amoeba)

The flash-mob specialist.

• The Power: They are cellular slime molds. They start as individual cells and only join together to form a “slug” when they are hungry.
• Science: They are used to study how single cells evolved to become multicellular animals (like us).

Stemonitis (Chocolate Tube Slime)

The vertical artist.

• The Vibe: Tall, brown, hair-like structures that look like miniature chocolate feathers.
• The Power: They can form “cysts” directly from their veins to survive dry spells, bypassing the standard dormancy phase.

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Keeper’s Note: Identifying species in the wild is best done during their “fruiting” phase when they grow stalks and spores. If you find a slime mold in its liquid stage (plasmodium), it can be very hard to tell a yellow Physarum from a yellow Fuligo!

Want to get into the technical details? Check out our Slime Mold Anatomy guide.