North Florida Slime Mold
Apr 26, 2023 • 3:48 PM UTC
Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA
140x Magnification
Microorganisms
Honors College
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In Spring 2023, an Honors Seminar Course spent 4-5 weeks exploring the UNF campus with Foldscopes. We spent ~2 weeks folding the scopes and playing with slide preparation, focusing, and imaging. Students were then challenged to explore the UNF campus with their Foldscope. Their assignment was to create one post for Microcosmos that contained at least three images from 3 different perspectives.
I originally intended to image spring caterpillars I noticed by the baseball fields, but when I went to sample them, there was not a caterpillar in sight! There were many old cocoons but no living caterpillars.
Instead, I found this lovely, little yellow blob of slime mold, Physarum polycephalum. A common name for this particular slime mold is dog vomit slime mold. The yellow slime mold is only temporary. In time, the blob will turn gray, become hard, and then breakdown in a powder.
The surface of the slime mold appeared to be dry and fluffy, but the slime mold itself is really wet and gooey.
Slime molds are fascinating because they are not really mold. Mold is classified as fungi, and slime molds are not fungi. Slime molds can actually move and belong to the Kingdom Protista. The yellow blob is one large cell that contains thousands of nuclei and ingests other microorganisms, including bacteria.
I used a pipet to transfer a small amount of the slime mold to a slide. After much trial and error, I was able to capture the following images:
I used a pipet to transfer a small amount of the slime mold to a slide. After much trial and error, I was able to capture the following images:
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