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From: arf@gagme.chi.il.us (jack schmidling)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Slime Mold
Message-ID: <1528@gagme.chi.il.us>
Date: 11 Jun 91 19:39:40 GMT
Organization: GAGME Public Access UNIX, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Lines: 44


 
 Article 4615 (32 more) in sci.bio:
 From: doug@netcom.COM (Doug Merritt)
 Subject: Slime mold???
 
 >Does slime mold ever settle into a form that resembles a 
 sponge?
 
 ARF says:  Yes
 
 >Something that *looks* like a sponge sometimes appears out 
 of a crack in the tile in my bathroom (moist environment), 
 and shows indications of having moved up to 6 inches 
 laterally overnight.
 
 >The body was about 2 inches wide & deep the first time, and 
 this time was about 2 inches wide but maybe 5 inches long. 
 It looks very much like a sponge (off yellow, dotted with 
 tiny holes etc), but is rather crumbly when it's cleaned 
 away.
 
 ARF says:
 
 The part that was moving was the plasmodium.  It moves much 
 like a giant amoeba.   The crubly stuff was the fruiting 
 body anagalous to the mushroom of more common fungi.  Some 
 species of slime mold have the plasmodium ripen directly 
 into a giant mass of spores, while others sprout tiny 
 mushroom-like sporangia.
 
 One spore, typically 5-10 microns long, properly nurtured, 
 will produce the whole mess.   The process is fascinating to 
 watch.  I just so happen to have caught such an event, in 
 time lapse some years ago.   Here comes the commercial.....
 
 "THE ROTTEN WORLD OF FUNGUS" is available (VHS video) at 
 your local library or from........
 
 If anyone really cares, I will be happy to send info on it.
 
 arf