slime mould

British

noun

any of various simple spore-producing organisms typically found as slimy masses on rotting vegetation, where they engulf food particles by amoeboid movements. Formerly regarded as fungi, they are now classified as protoctists of the phyla Myxomycota (true, or cellular slime moulds) or Acrasiomycota (plasmodial slime moulds)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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slime mould

Barry said he "didn't know they existed" before he was introduced to the world of slime mould in 2019.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025

These images, captured by photographer Barry Webb, provide a close-up view of single-celled slime mould organisms.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025

A slime mould consists of mobile, single-celled, amoeba-like organisms that live independently but can come together to function as a single entity in order to find food and reproduce.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2025

"The Craterium minutum slime mould was found on decaying vegetation, at the edge of a compost heap in my garden, captured following a hard frost," said Webb.

From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2024

Fig. 5.—A, a portion of a slime mould growing on a bit of rotten wood, × 3.

From Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses by Campbell, Douglas Houghton

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023