Product Description

The myxomycetes, or slime molds, are among the most fascinating organisms in the world. This book identifies all the species one is likely to encounter, with extensive information on their structural features, distribution, and ecological associations. Superbly illustrated and with keys, it is an introduction to their biology as well as a field guide

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #340415 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Review
Excellent book that will undoubtedly increase awareness and appreciation of myxomycetes. I recommend it highly. (D.S.H., Mycotaxon, April-June 1995 )

Profusely illustrated . . . Most readable. (Plant Talk, April 2000 )

Profusely illustrated . . . Most readable. -- Plant Talk, April 2000

The aim of this book is to introduce slime moulds to the public and this it does admirably. (A. Feest, New Phytol, Vol 132 1996 )

The aim of this book is to introduce slime moulds to the public and this it does admirably. -- A. Feest, New Phytol, Vol 132 1996

This handbook goes a long way toward revealing the otherworldly beauty of the myxomycetes. (HortIdeas, March 2000 )

This handbook goes a long way toward revealing the otherworldly beauty of the myxomycetes. -- HortIdeas, March 2000

This handbook should certainly stimulate interest and study of the myxomycetes. (Vernon Ahmadjian, The Bryologist, Vol 98 1995 )

This handbook should certainly stimulate interest and study of the myxomycetes. -- Vernon Ahmadjian, The Bryologist, Vol 98 1995

About the Author
Henry Stempen-
Henry Stempen is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Steven L. Stephenson-
Steven L. Stephenson has collected and studied myxomycetes from the polar regions to the tropics and on six continents. His research interests are the distribution and ecology of myxomycetes and the forest ecology of the Appalachians.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A decaying log or stump seems an unlikely place to find one of nature's most extraordinary creatures. If one searches carefully, however, during the summer and early autumn, especially after a period of rainy weather, almost any woodland will yield a number of the fruiting bodies of a truly remarkable group of organisms, the slime molds.

Slime molds, or myxomycetes, as biologists call them, may not have a particularly attractive name, but members of the group produce fruiting bodies that exhibit incredibly diverse forms and colors and are often objects of considerable beauty. Most myxomycetes are quite small, reaching no more than a millimeter or two in height. Although large enough to be seen with the naked eye, the fruiting bodies of myxomycetes can best be observed with a hand lens or microscope. Only then can their intricate nature be fully appreciated. Fruiting bodies may take the shape of tiny goblets, globes, plumes, or other shapes more difficult to characterize. Some occur in tightly packed clusters, while others are scattered or even solitary. Many of the more intricate forms have a spore case held aloft on a delicate stalk, but others are attached directly to the substrate by their bases. Whatever form the fruiting body takes, its primary function is to produce the spores by which the myxomycete is propagated.

Myxomycetes have long intrigued and perplexed biologists because they possess characteristics of both animals and fungi. The fruiting bodies and spores they produce resemble those of many fungi, but some of their other attributes, including the capability for locomotion, are normally associated with animals.

For most of its life, a myxomycete exists as a thin, free-living mass of protoplasm. Sometimes this mass is several centimeters across and, as the name slime mold suggests, viscous and slimy to the touch. The mass of protoplasm, which is called a plasmodium (plural: plasmodia), can change form and creep slowly over the substrate upon which it occurs, much like a giant amoeba. As it moves, it feeds by engulfing bacteria and tiny bits of organic matter, another animal-like feature

Myxomycete plasmodia occur in cool, moist, shady places such as within crevices of decaying wood, beneath the partially decayed bark of logs and stumps, and in leaf litter. Consequently, they are not seen as frequently as are the fruiting bodies. Nonetheless, one can sometimes find plasmodia by stripping the bark from a decaying log or by carefully searching the moist underside of a piece of wood that has been lying on the forest floor. Plasmodia may be colorless or, as is more often the case, strikingly colored yellow, orange, or red.

After a period of feeding and growth, the plasmodium moves out of its normal habitat and into a drier, more exposed location. Here it gives rise to one or more fruiting bodies. This remarkable transformation from an animal-like to a funguslike form seems more like something from science fiction than like science fact. Each fruiting body contains numerous spores, which are dispersed by the wind and, under suitable conditions, germinate--the first stage in development of a new plasmodium.

Most people overlook myxomycetes because of their small size and because of where they occur . . . However, myxomycetes are among the most fascinating inhabitants of the woodlands of the world.

Customer Reviews

As Strange as Any Life from Mars Could be!
The slime molds are generally little noticed, but very strange life forms that could easily fit in a science fiction book. The swarm cells and myxamoebae unite to form first an amoeboid zygote, then the strange, crawling, plasmodium stage, and finally the fungus-like fruiting body. The plasmodia can be (in the case of Fuligo) large yellow pulsating crawling blobs that suddenly appear on people's lawns. Others are less noticeable, but often brightly colored. I have seen one of these plasmodia in my life- a bright pink blob that disappeared into the ground when I raised a rotting log in the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona. I was certainly startled!

Stephenson and Stempen have written an excellent book on these strange critters in "Myxomycetes: A Handbook of Slime Molds." It fills a gap in the literature on natural history. It is my hope that more people will be able to appreciate these neat organisms through the descriptions, excellent line drawings and well-rendered color plates.

I will disagree with one reviewer's dislike of the describer's name after the scientific name, however. It is there for the convenience of other taxonomist as least as much as the vanity of the describer. If I know that Physarum nutans was described by Persoon it tells me something about where I should look for the original description and may also give me some idea of when the name probably originated. Also Physarum cinereum (Batsch) Persoon tells me that Batsch wrote the original description, but placed the species in a different genus, which was than changed to the present genus by Persoon. Thus such "vain" additions are often important to other workers in the field.

I do agree with the same reviewer that some further discussion of how slime molds are classified might have helped an otherwise excellent book. However, I am also fully aware that the classification is still in flux and no final answers may yet be possible until DNA studies are done (and maybe not even then!).

Read this book if you find the weirdness of the world fascinating! Better still, use it to find and identify slime molds. Good hunting.

Excellent - with 3 caveats
Overall I cannot find enough praise for the book. Clearly written, lavishly illustrated with exquisite line-drawings, and even the luxury of coloured plates! My three criticisms below can only be seen in the context of lavish praise which this volume richly deserves.

However...........

1. Chaper 6. Classification. Pages 70-71.

The classification diagram is fine. But it would have been very helpful to mention the class, division and kingdom in which myxomcetes belong. Thus enabling the reader to appreciate the place of Myxomycetes in the tree of all earthly life.

2. Chapter 6. Identification. Pages 72ff.

The novice's efforts to itentify a slime mould would be greatly assisted by taking one step back, before presenting the excellent dichotomous trees. We need an acid test to decide whether what is before our eyes is indeed a slime mould, and not e.g. a lichen, fungus, moss..... It is pointless to apply the dichotomous (how I love that word!) tests to something which is not in fact a slime mould at all!

2. Chapter 6. Descriptions (names). Pages 87ff.

As a matter of passionately held principle I object to the odious practice of adding discoveres' names to the scientific names of species. As the authors will be aware, there are strongs movement to put an end to this appalling habit which -

a. Detracts from the scientific objectivity of the naming scheme, by obtrusive name-dropping. Imagine the ridicule resulting from the spread of this practice to other sciences, where we might well stumble upon the ...

electron (Thompson) Milligan, neutron Chadwick neutrino (Yukawa) Dirac

b. Leads to such ugly and unfelicitous expressions as....

Trichia varia (Persoon) Persoon

.....surely a case of the tail wagging the dog!

c. Adds nothing to the intrinsic nature of the species. Presumably Physarella oblongata would still have existed, exactly as it now is, even if it had never been identified by (Berkley & Curtis) Morgan! Or indeed before any human beings evolved!

To avoid continual irritation I have typ-exed out all mention of discoverers' names in my copy of this otherwise splendid book!