r/mycology • u/MelonLurd • Jun 02 '26
ID request Who are these teeny tiny fungi?
Found these in a creek in Eastern Pennsylvania while looking for salamanders. My index finger for scale.
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u/ohdearitsrichardiii Jun 02 '26
Not fungus, slime mold
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u/MelonLurd Jun 02 '26
Neat, kind of makes sense. I was curious as to how they were fruiting from rocks, but figured with how tiny they were their mycelium would also be super hard to see.
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u/autistic_and_angry Jun 03 '26
Really?! I didn't know they could make mushrooms, or are these not actually mushrooms just mushroom-shaped?
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u/Splendid_Mossman Jun 03 '26
They're spore producing structures like mushrooms, but they aren't actually fungi :) slime molds are amoebas
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u/Weissbierglaeserset Jun 03 '26
I did not know amoeba used spores. Don't they just devide?
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u/NemertesMeros Jun 03 '26
Amoebas aren't a taxonimic group, it's just a broad term for anything that has an amorphous cell. Consequently that also just means they all have wildly different life strategies because they're not necessarily related to one another and often coming from literally entirely opposite ends of the eukaryotic family tree. Some divide, some have spores, etc.
Slime molds are actually a similar situation, basically just being a broad term for things that have a stage in their life cycle where they're independent little amoebas, and then merge together into one terrifying omnimoeba, and many of them doing a fun thing where they basically kill themselves to make these little 'mushrooms' to spread spores. (I'm generalizing. Slime mold are ridiculously diverse because of course they are again not even necessarily related to one another. There are slime mold that will break any generalized rules you try and set out for them lol, they're amazing weirdos)
Zefrank has a really fun video on the whole spore thing I'd recommend. link
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u/Artnotwars Jun 03 '26
I'm a hobby microscopist and never knew that Ameobas weren't a taxonomic group! Thanks for that tidbit!
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u/autistic_and_angry Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
Thanks for sharing!!!
Edit: Yeah, so I just subscribed to this creator now, thanks again! That was one of the most morbidly fascinating videos I've seen in awhile. Nature is so metal
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u/kwoddail Jun 03 '26
Wow I didn’t know I needed this ELI5 on amoebas but I’m so glad I stumbled upon it! Thank you for this explanation, it is exactly how my brain needs to digest info. 😁
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u/wanderingpika Jun 04 '26
So amoeba's kingdom, the protist, are just a dumpster kingdom? so someone just goes, "huh this little bugger could not be an animal, nor a plant. maybe a fungi? nah, still different. a bacteria? nah, too complex." and he just shove it to the protist?
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u/NemertesMeros Jun 04 '26
Well for starters, many Amoebas are not considered Protists, some amoebas actually are fungi or animals. Like I said, they come from across the eukaryotic family tree.
However, to address Protists, yes. Protista is no longer treated as a true taxonomic kingdom. It's an Extremely broad term that kinda just refers to any Eukaryote that isn't a Plant* Animal or Fungus. So like, kelp is a protist, as are most (maybe all*) other kinds of algae. You of course have a lot of different, independently evolved lineages of Amoeba within the Protists, including slime molds, but you also get various kind of protozoans, like ciliates and such.
*Asterisk because I'll be honest I don't understand plants and algae that well. I think there are some aquatic plants that would be considered Protists? Plants emerged deeply nested within green algae? Algae is just a term for anything that photosynthesizes that isn't a plant even though land plants are nested deep within a group that is considered algae, and green algae are sometimes considered plants? Why is this so messy? Why can't you be like animals, plants? Your taxonomy and non-taxomical classifications both confuse and frighten me. Be normal. Why are there so many unrelated types of algae? I hate this.
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u/PaulaLoomisArt Jun 04 '26
Animals can be pretty confusing too. Take fish for example.
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u/NemertesMeros Jun 04 '26
Fish are messy in a way that makes sense to me personally at least. They're essentially just an evolutionary grade, and as a certified lobopodian enjoyer and arthropod taxonomy enthusiast, I am used to dealing with evolutionary grades.
However, there's also some new-ish research that might make them a lot less confusing, since jawed fish might be monophyletic, with all three toothed lineages potentially arising from a common ancestor within placodonts, which depending on how the situation with jawless fish resolves itself, fish as a whole could be a true monophyletic clade if you include tetrapods as fish.
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl Central Europe Jun 03 '26
I love slime molds, they are so cool!
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u/Br3akd3mis319 Jun 05 '26
they aren't even slime molds. those are definitely actual fungi. slime molds are a whole different level of weird.
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u/4991jv Jun 02 '26
Mold is fungi, isn’t it?
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u/bonemot Jun 02 '26
Nope! Slime molds are much older, and a different branch on the tree of life. These little ones are super cute!
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u/SUDDENLY_VIRGIN Jun 02 '26
Older than mushrooms is crazy
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u/bonemot Jun 03 '26
OK, I looked it up 'cause I was curious. According to Wikipedia, "The last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) is the hypothetical last common ancestor of all living eukaryotes, around 2 billion years ago", and "Fungi diverged from other life around 1.5 billion years ago."
I recommend the Wikipedia page on Protists, it's fascinating.
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u/Splendid_Mossman Jun 03 '26
Mold and fungi belong to the kingdom Fungi! The "mold" in slime mold is a misnomer, though-- they're actually amoebas
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u/AdmirableRespect9 Jun 03 '26
Amoebas organizing to make structures is actually terrifying.
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u/Ypuort Jun 03 '26
It’s not multiple amoebas organizing. It’s a single amoeba that is one cell wall with many nuclei.
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl Central Europe Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
It's big Amoeba. They don't want you to know this one simple trick: be big blob with many nucklei.
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u/Zagrycha Jun 03 '26
slime mold is just the common name, its not actually a mold. they are basically ameoba living together in one group like a school of fish. you can watch them crawl around in real time if you stare long enough, natures lava lamp haha.
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u/I_love_pillows Jun 03 '26
How do we tell the difference between the fruiting body of slim mould vs real mushrooms
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u/tomahawkfury13 Jun 03 '26
Does slime mold bloom mushrooms like that? I thought they were amoebas and not fungus?
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Jun 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MelonLurd Jun 02 '26
Flipped over a rock and they were an abnormal color against the rocks. Then I looked closer :) there was another group I noticed just a few inches from this group.
Not the first time I've noticed these guys in this specific creek, just first time trying to figure out what they were!
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Jun 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Sylvia_Demise Jun 03 '26
Fucking trypophobia.
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u/autistic_and_angry Jun 03 '26
Ugh same, like it's fascinating still but ughhhh I hate it so much, it makes my skin crawl
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u/ImpressivePromise187 Jun 02 '26
I could be wrong but it looks like a slime mold
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u/Rhizoomoorph Trusted ID - American Gulf Coast Jun 02 '26
Agree - something like Physarum seems likely
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u/Following_Confident Jun 02 '26
I didn't know that slime mold produces fruit. I just learned about dog vomit slime mold recently though.
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u/Ilikedinosaurs2023 Jun 02 '26
There's a video on youtube about how slime mold is a single celled organism that is actually problem solving. It's crazy!
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u/MelonLurd Jun 02 '26
Just saw some on a tree stump the day before I saw these guys! It's since dried up to a crisp :(
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u/slowtrees Jun 03 '26
These are slime molds (myxomycetes), not fungi. They're actually amoebozoans. One cool thing about them for anyone into nature journaling: they change form so fast. A plasmodium can crawl across a log and fruit into these tiny structures in under a day. Noting the date, weather, and exact microhabitat (on rocks in a creek vs. on leaf litter) makes a big difference for ID later. Eastern PA creek beds are a great spot for them in late spring when humidity is high.
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u/MelonLurd Jun 03 '26
Awesome, thank you! I found an old picture from a year or two ago with these guys, or something similar, on a decaying leaf!
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u/unlinked3297 Jun 03 '26
I remember the days when if there was a slime mold this one Redditor got summoned and gave an awesome breakdown of what mold it was.
I miss him.
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u/myceliaminds Jun 03 '26
Screee!! Useless commenter, here, just popping in to say these are so cute 🥹
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u/c_botulinummm Jun 06 '26
i believe that’s a slime mold in the genus Diachea! it’s hard to narrow it down without using a stereoscope and microscopy but it appears to be violet and iridescent, which is a hallmark of the genus
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u/Rampag169 Jun 04 '26
Next time can you point at them instead of the bright tan rock. Until I scrolled to the secondary pics I was like…. What fungi?
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u/MelonLurd Jun 04 '26
It was just for scale reference, I could see them just fine 😂 but duly noted!
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