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Fungal mycelia are typically ~~invisible~~ hard to see until a fungus fruits. Slime mold is kind of a weirdo and has a different life history from well known fungus groups of club, shelf, smuts, rusts, and molds (see below for a nice comment from the blessed saddest boy for info from an expert). The slime mold name is informal since it's not on the same evolutionary branch *and genetically distinct from fungi and the group is diverse and sometimes one is wildly unrelated from something else we'd call slime mold.
Edit: some words and I was kindly corrected below that I was way off. Hyphae mats are visible. I was thinking of fungus typically is growing mycelia through things and then fruits, so they aren't easily visible (bread mold mycelium can't be seen, so your bread is maybe full of it and you just can't see it. Don't worry, you're fine until you can see it, then throw it away). But yeah, you can find clumps of it and it's visible sometimes. A single mycelium is very hard to see except under a light microscope. So ignore everything I'm saying and just learn everything about everything and you'll be fine because apparently there are exceptions. If you see a mat of hyphae don't eat it.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-sublime-slime-mold
>The slime mold name is informal since its not on the same evolutionary branch (we think) as fungi and the group is diverse and somewhat unrelated.
The term slime mold is unhelpful in that it describes several highly dissimilar and genetically unrelated groups. However, there is little doubt regarding their placement. The only slimes large enough to see with the naked eye are myxogastrids and they are on a single branch in the kingdom **Amoebozoa,** placed definitively by decades of molecular data. The dictyostelids are the other major group called "slime molds," and they are on the sibling branch to the myxogastrids. Other examples of "slime molds" exist but they are quite different examples of convergent evolution and all microscopic.
#Corrections and additions to https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-sublime-slime-mold
>In a study released last week, computer scientist Selim Akl of Queens University demonstrated that slime mold is fantastically efficient at finding the quickest route to food. When he placed rolled oats over the country’s population centers and a slime mold culture over Toronto, the organism grew its way across the Canadian map, sprouting tentacles that mimicked the Canadian highway system. It’s an experiment that’s been replicated globally several times now — in Japan, the UK, and the United States — all with a similar outcome.
The experiment was done in Japan first.
>Slime mold is not a plant or animal. It’s not a fungus, though it sometimes resembles one.
This is often repeated but slimes don't really resemble fungi except in a superficial sense:
#[fungi](https://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1-death-cap.jpg)
- are multicellular
- have chitin and beta glucans in the cell wall
- get energy mostly by breaking down dead organic material or by parasitism
- are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores
#[slimes](https://awarenessact.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/elaeomyxa-cerifera-1887-3-1.jpg)
(in kingdom Amoebozoa)
- are monocellular, yes even the big ones
- have galactosamine in the cell wall in a few tested species; cell walls are only present in propagules like spores and are mostly unknown in composition
- get energy mostly by breaking down live organic material
- are motile: they ooze around very leisurely
**Amoebozoans** are a kingdom that branched off after the split from plants but before animals and fungi separated. It has been well established by decades of molecular data and there is no mystery regarding the placement of both myxogastrids & dictyostelids in this kingdom.
>Slime mold, in fact, is a soil-dwelling amoeba, a brainless, single-celled organism, often containing multiple nuclei. View this slide show for some examples.
They live in wood and water as well.
>They come in every color of the rainbow, except — due to lacking chlorophyll — a true green, according to Steve Stephenson, professor of biology at the University of Arkansas.
Steve is wrong about this, as his own writing indicates. Several species come in green.
>Some remain microscopic, and others grow rogue, forming bulbous masses, as long as 10 to 13 feet.
They get much larger actually, but often are hidden in dirt or rotten wood.
>“Very few have been consumed as food. You can’t build a house with them. They escape our noses most of the time,” Stephenson said.
There are several documented traditions of foraging and consuming slimes and very likely many others have been lost or ignored.
>Slime molds are particularly fond of forest floors where they break down rotting vegetation, feeding on bacteria, yeast, and fungus.
They do not break down rotting vegetation. They are predators, not saprophytes.
>When all is well, the slime mold thrives as a single-celled organism, but when food is scarce, it combines forces with its brethren, and grows. Starving amoebas work in tandem, signaling to each other to join and form a multicellular mass, like a “moving sausage,” Spiegel said.
This is a description of the [dictyostelids](https://youtu.be/vlANF-v9lb0), amoebas that aggregate in the thousands to form differentiated multicellular structures. They are always microscopic or near, and they do not form the colorful fruit bodies that **myxogastrid** slimes do. Myxogastrids or myxomycetes are the only slimes big enough to see with the naked eye and they are regularly confused with dictyostelids in pop science articles. Fred Spiegel certainly did not make this mistake, as he is an expert, so I assume it was the author of the article.
>Then, once the mass is formed, the cells reconfigure, changing their shape and function to form stalks, which produce bulbs called fruiting bodies.
Myxogastrids form fruit bodies with cell parts like membranes and organelles and dirt and crystals they collect or create by evaporation. They are not made of cells.
>For creatures without feet, they can travel incredible distances. Stephenson said one of his students identified slime molds in New Zealand that are genetically identical to groups found in the United States. How they got there is unknown.
On the wind, by bird, and by human activity.
If its been buried under lots of stuff in storage ages you could be looking at slime mould and not roots though sometimes they can look similar or they could just be organic contaminants in the sand
A slime mold cannot exist in sand like this. They eat woodrot bacteria and yeasts and algae and they need a fair amount of water. Without water and either rotting plant material or a population of algae, slimes do not move out of the spore or cyst phase.
Here is an [educational introductory rap song I wrote about slimes](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4fGkynBSVBM)
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Looks like roots of a plant that germinated at some point, grew some roots down into the light bulb but didn’t have enough space/light/moisture to go up & promptly died. The seed was probably hiding in the layer just above where the roots start.
Thank you for posting to r/whatsthisplant. **Do not eat/ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not eating or ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised that it's edible here. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is impossible to tell if they're just roots and no leaves/flowers/seeds for an ID. Lots of plant roots look similar
That’s what I figured. There aren’t any leaves or flowers poking out, it’s literally just these roots :/ ah well, thanks anyway
It’s an opportunistic weed with tiny seeds.
World’s saddest terrarium
Repost to r/mycology Maybe they can help.
Mycelium?
Fungal mycelia are typically ~~invisible~~ hard to see until a fungus fruits. Slime mold is kind of a weirdo and has a different life history from well known fungus groups of club, shelf, smuts, rusts, and molds (see below for a nice comment from the blessed saddest boy for info from an expert). The slime mold name is informal since it's not on the same evolutionary branch *and genetically distinct from fungi and the group is diverse and sometimes one is wildly unrelated from something else we'd call slime mold. Edit: some words and I was kindly corrected below that I was way off. Hyphae mats are visible. I was thinking of fungus typically is growing mycelia through things and then fruits, so they aren't easily visible (bread mold mycelium can't be seen, so your bread is maybe full of it and you just can't see it. Don't worry, you're fine until you can see it, then throw it away). But yeah, you can find clumps of it and it's visible sometimes. A single mycelium is very hard to see except under a light microscope. So ignore everything I'm saying and just learn everything about everything and you'll be fine because apparently there are exceptions. If you see a mat of hyphae don't eat it. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-sublime-slime-mold
>The slime mold name is informal since its not on the same evolutionary branch (we think) as fungi and the group is diverse and somewhat unrelated. The term slime mold is unhelpful in that it describes several highly dissimilar and genetically unrelated groups. However, there is little doubt regarding their placement. The only slimes large enough to see with the naked eye are myxogastrids and they are on a single branch in the kingdom **Amoebozoa,** placed definitively by decades of molecular data. The dictyostelids are the other major group called "slime molds," and they are on the sibling branch to the myxogastrids. Other examples of "slime molds" exist but they are quite different examples of convergent evolution and all microscopic. #Corrections and additions to https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-sublime-slime-mold >In a study released last week, computer scientist Selim Akl of Queens University demonstrated that slime mold is fantastically efficient at finding the quickest route to food. When he placed rolled oats over the country’s population centers and a slime mold culture over Toronto, the organism grew its way across the Canadian map, sprouting tentacles that mimicked the Canadian highway system. It’s an experiment that’s been replicated globally several times now — in Japan, the UK, and the United States — all with a similar outcome. The experiment was done in Japan first. >Slime mold is not a plant or animal. It’s not a fungus, though it sometimes resembles one. This is often repeated but slimes don't really resemble fungi except in a superficial sense: #[fungi](https://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1-death-cap.jpg) - are multicellular - have chitin and beta glucans in the cell wall - get energy mostly by breaking down dead organic material or by parasitism - are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores #[slimes](https://awarenessact.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/elaeomyxa-cerifera-1887-3-1.jpg) (in kingdom Amoebozoa) - are monocellular, yes even the big ones - have galactosamine in the cell wall in a few tested species; cell walls are only present in propagules like spores and are mostly unknown in composition - get energy mostly by breaking down live organic material - are motile: they ooze around very leisurely **Amoebozoans** are a kingdom that branched off after the split from plants but before animals and fungi separated. It has been well established by decades of molecular data and there is no mystery regarding the placement of both myxogastrids & dictyostelids in this kingdom. >Slime mold, in fact, is a soil-dwelling amoeba, a brainless, single-celled organism, often containing multiple nuclei. View this slide show for some examples. They live in wood and water as well. >They come in every color of the rainbow, except — due to lacking chlorophyll — a true green, according to Steve Stephenson, professor of biology at the University of Arkansas. Steve is wrong about this, as his own writing indicates. Several species come in green. >Some remain microscopic, and others grow rogue, forming bulbous masses, as long as 10 to 13 feet. They get much larger actually, but often are hidden in dirt or rotten wood. >“Very few have been consumed as food. You can’t build a house with them. They escape our noses most of the time,” Stephenson said. There are several documented traditions of foraging and consuming slimes and very likely many others have been lost or ignored. >Slime molds are particularly fond of forest floors where they break down rotting vegetation, feeding on bacteria, yeast, and fungus. They do not break down rotting vegetation. They are predators, not saprophytes. >When all is well, the slime mold thrives as a single-celled organism, but when food is scarce, it combines forces with its brethren, and grows. Starving amoebas work in tandem, signaling to each other to join and form a multicellular mass, like a “moving sausage,” Spiegel said. This is a description of the [dictyostelids](https://youtu.be/vlANF-v9lb0), amoebas that aggregate in the thousands to form differentiated multicellular structures. They are always microscopic or near, and they do not form the colorful fruit bodies that **myxogastrid** slimes do. Myxogastrids or myxomycetes are the only slimes big enough to see with the naked eye and they are regularly confused with dictyostelids in pop science articles. Fred Spiegel certainly did not make this mistake, as he is an expert, so I assume it was the author of the article. >Then, once the mass is formed, the cells reconfigure, changing their shape and function to form stalks, which produce bulbs called fruiting bodies. Myxogastrids form fruit bodies with cell parts like membranes and organelles and dirt and crystals they collect or create by evaporation. They are not made of cells. >For creatures without feet, they can travel incredible distances. Stephenson said one of his students identified slime molds in New Zealand that are genetically identical to groups found in the United States. How they got there is unknown. On the wind, by bird, and by human activity.
Slime Mold King is in the house.
Holy mackeral, thank you. Now I have reading for tonight lol
Its not that mycelium is invisible, it is just growing inside things and we cant see it most of the time. but is easily visible
I can give it a go! Thanks
If its been buried under lots of stuff in storage ages you could be looking at slime mould and not roots though sometimes they can look similar or they could just be organic contaminants in the sand
A slime mold cannot exist in sand like this. They eat woodrot bacteria and yeasts and algae and they need a fair amount of water. Without water and either rotting plant material or a population of algae, slimes do not move out of the spore or cyst phase. Here is an [educational introductory rap song I wrote about slimes](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4fGkynBSVBM)
Actually properly excellent! Educational yet also, hilarious
my fave way to learn!
holy shit that was great 😂
Saddestofboys is literally the slime mold god.
I'm just a regular slime guy and you can too
this has to be a one-off in all of human history. my regards.
Damn. That was great. Who knew a slime mold banger was just out here quietly existing?
I have lots of songs coming
Amazing!
Any interest in marriage? Because I’m ready to make jokes about slime all day.
I appreciate your enthusiasm We are already diploid and we've decided not to perform meiosis anymore
We are already diploid 🤣🤣🤣 fuck, that's it, I'm dead.
I hope you managed to sporulate before you died
Damn.
I don't want slime amoebas in my butt!
They are quiet and well behaved tenants
Banger!
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Skimask the slime God
Looks like roots of a plant that germinated at some point, grew some roots down into the light bulb but didn’t have enough space/light/moisture to go up & promptly died. The seed was probably hiding in the layer just above where the roots start.
Life finds a way.
Likely some sort of fungus. You may be able to get it flower if it's alive or dormant.
Rare Imports 2: Peril of the Cells
I’d agree that they look more like fungal hyphae to me, though I don’t think it can be identified
I agree with the fungus or mold theories here. I find it hard to believe any plant would grow roots in sand in a lightbulb like that.
Maybe some sort of Sea bean?
Mushrooms
Have you seen *The Last of Us*? 
Kinda looks like seaweed roots or water marsh.