''Tubifera ferruginosa'', more commonly known as ''raspberry slime mold'' or ''red raspberry slime mold'', is a species of

slime mold Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to a polyphyletic assemblage of unrelated eukaryotic organisms in the Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota clades. Most are near-microscopic; those in the Myxogastria ...

in the

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

Myxogastria Myxogastria/Myxogastrea (myxogastrids, ICZN) or Myxomycetes ( ICN) is a class of slime molds that contains 5 orders, 14 families, 62 genera, and 888 species. They are colloquially known as the ''plasmodial'' or ''acellula ...

. It is one of the most widely known and distinct slime molds, being found throughout

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

regions of the world, primarily in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Description

''T. ferruginosa'' is often found growing on damp rotten wood in temperate forests. It forms small, cushion-like "pseudoaethalia", or fruiting bodies from June to November that are bright red when young, and purple-brown when mature. These "pseudoaethalia" are different from the aethelia of other slime molds like

Fuligo septica ''Fuligo septica'' is a species of slime mold in the class Myxogastria, Myxomycetes. It is common name, commonly known as scrambled egg slime or flowers of tan because of its peculiar yellowish appearance; it is also known as dog vomit slime mol ...

, because they are made of tightly bunched, gelatinous rods, or

sporangia A sporangium (from Late Latin, ; : sporangia) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a unicellular organism, single cell or can be multicellular organism, multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungus, fungi, and many ot ...

. Each individual sporangium is approximately 0.5 mm wide and 3 to 5 cm tall, while the width of the pseudoaethalia can reach 15 cm. The pseudoaethalia is anchored to a surface by the hypothallus, a spongy, raised structure that appears light in color.

Name

The name "ferruginosa" comes from ''Ferrug''-, meaning “rusty” or “rust”; and -''osa'', meaning “fullness” or “abundance”. Tubifera ferruginosa 52288

References

Myxogastria Protists described in 1791 Myxogastria species {{Amoebozoa-stub