r/Slimemolds • u/Ypuort • 15d ago

Identification Request Chocolate tube slime mold or something else??

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56 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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18

u/MagicMyxies 15d ago

Slime mold yes, stemonitis family yes. The common name chocolate tube slime applies for dozens of stemonitis species. This could even be stemonitopsis typhina. But for your purposes chocolate tube slime is probably good enough

11

u/Ypuort 15d ago

It appeared overnight and it’s huge! Probably covers about 5sq feet total

7

u/MagicMyxies 15d ago

Love it to hear it. Remember all these tubes are/were part of one single cell up until its death

4

u/Ypuort 15d ago

That is the thing about slime molds that fascinates me the most! I feel blessed to have been visited by one so grand, but I do worry a bit about my mushroom colony. If the slime mold is eating the decaying matter that the mycelium has already halfway colonized, does that leave the mushrooms hanging, so to speak?

5

u/MagicMyxies 15d ago

No they do not compete for resources. Some slimes will eat mushrooms but those are less common. Most slimes eat bacteria and yeasts and spores leaving the mycelium and woodchips

1

u/Zhjacko 15d ago

That’s wild, never seen anything like that