Myxomycetes, or slime molds, are fungus-like organisms that have characteristics of one-celled microorganisms and fungi. Every time I read another article on slime molds, I get hooked again! As a naturalist, I am familiar with slime molds that I meet growing in the forest woodlands, although I sometimes confuse them with fungi. It is possible to find slime molds on logs, leaves, wood chips, fence posts, compost, bark, and decaying stumps. They live on flowers and plants, in the vines of tropical rainforests, and at the edge of the snowmelt in the Arctic and Antarctic. There may be more than a thousand species, we just don’t know. Colors that are brilliant yellow, sunset orange, or crimson, alert me to slime mold possibility. Slime molds have probably been around for about 1- 2 billion years.

These ‘creatures’ start out as amoebae that live in the soil enriching it with nutrients. During the second stage of their lives, slime molds become plasmodia. Then they act like animals that forage and hunt things like lichens, fungi, and bacteria oozing their way along. This second stage is the one we know the best because scientists use them to solve problems like getting through mazes. During the second stage Plasmodia move, albeit slowly. These amazing organisms can spread just a few inches or cover an area of many feet. In this stage, astronomers also mapped dark matter in the cosmos using algorithms (rules) that humans couldn’t figure out independently. In the third stage, slime molds produce luscious fruiting bodies of every conceivable shape and hue. Please look them up on the internet if you want an experience of awe! Spores appear in the final stage of slime mold life. Spores with tiny caps, bristles, knobs… they may have more than a hundred sexes. These spores are carried away by the wind, water, or some animal to create more slime molds.

Myxomycetes are placed in the kingdom Protista. They ooze and spill over boundaries constructed by humans. They are both individuals and collective entities. Why have we ignored such mysterious beings?  My answer to this question would be that slime molds have no brain. Humans are Neurocentric, that is they believe that brains determine intelligence, and slime molds have none. And yet, these creature-plants (?) can solve problems we cannot. This ability is what hooked me initially and remains a source of wonder still.

What can we learn from slime molds? Perhaps one thing we could learn is that intelligence is not brain-dependent and occurs throughout sentient nature in ways we do not understand. Slime molds reinforce other discoveries recently made. A good example is what we are learning about forests being communities that care for and about each other; forests that may compete for sunlight and food but overall are focused on the survival of the whole organism instead of its parts.

To my mind, all nature possesses intelligence. Most scientists agree that intelligence requires the ability to make decisions and solve problems as well as the ability to adapt. Slime molds do all three. Mindbending. Couldn’t slime molds also help humans see that we are just one species on an earth that is home to other animals, plants, fungi slime molds all of whom have special abilities?

Nature thrives on diversity. Humans have a tendency to choose what they believe is a ‘truth’, usually a scientific theory like that of the brain being necessary for intelligence. Once this truth is concretized, we automatically dismiss other ways of thinking about how nature might really work. Opening our minds and hearts to other ways of imagining the world might even help our crumbling culture to survive.

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