''Brefeldia maxima'' is a species of non-parasitic plasmodial

slime mold Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores. Spores are often produced in macroscopic mu ...

, and a member of the class Myxomycetes. It is commonly known as the tapioca slime mold because of its peculiar pure white,

tapioca pudding Tapioca pudding (similar to sago pudding) is a sweet pudding made with tapioca and either milk or cream. Coconut milk is also used in cases in which the flavor is preferred or in areas in which it is a commonplace ingredient for cooking. It is ...

-like appearance. A common species with a worldwide distribution, particularly in North America and Europe. It is often found on bark after heavy rain or excessive watering. Their

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

s are produced on or in aerial

sporangia A sporangium (; from Late Latin, ) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cy ...

and are spread by wind, however beetles of the family Lathridiidae are also reported to disperse the spores. Bonner states that soil invertebrates and rain mainly disperse spores as they are sticky and unlikely to be carried by air currents. Brefeldia maxima plasmodium

The genus is named after German botanist and mycologist

Julius Oscar Brefeld Julius Oscar Brefeld (19 August 1839 – 12 January 1925), usually just Oscar Brefeld, was a German botanist and mycologist. Biography Brefeld was a native of Telgte. He studied pharmacy in Heidelberg and Berlin, and afterwards served as an a ...

(August 19, 1839 – January 12, 1925).

Distribution

Found throughout the United Kingdom and common in Europe, ''Brefeldia maxima'' is known to be much rarer in North America.

Description and habitat

File:Brefeldia maxima - plasmodium after 5 days.jpg, The same plasmodium as all the other illustrations, but 5 days later. Note area to the left where the plasmodium was located previously. File:Brefeldia maxima - sporulating phase.jpg, The same plasmodium entering the full sporulating phase. File:Brefeldia maxima sporulating phase.jpg, The same plasmodium 15 days into the sporulating phase and after heavy rain. No longer regarded as a fungus, ''Brefeldia'' belongs to the group colloquially known as

plasmodial A plasmodium is a living structure of cytoplasm that contains many nuclei, rather than being divided into individual cells each with a single nucleus. Plasmodia are best known from slime molds, but are also found in parasitic Myxosporea, and so ...

acellular Non-cellular life, or acellular life is life that exists without a cellular structure for at least part of its life cycle. Historically, most (descriptive) definitions of life postulated that an organism must be composed of one or more cells, ...

slime molds, although known within the scientific community as myxomycetes, the term no longer refers to a formal taxonomic group. ''Brefeldia maxima'' is one of the largest of the slime molds and its distinctive feature is the presence of multicellular vesicles within the

capillitium Capillitium (pl. capillitia) is a mass of sterile fibers within a fruit body interspersed among spores. It is found in Mycetozoa (slime molds) and gasteroid fungi of the fungal subdivision Agaricomycotina The subdivision Agaricomycotina, also kn ...

. Joszef Tomasz Rostafinski (1850–1928) first described this species. The plasmodium emerges from soil and leaves as a pure white structure, often very large and exhibiting rhythmic

cytoplasmic streaming Cytoplasmic streaming, also called protoplasmic streaming and cyclosis, is the flow of the cytoplasm inside the cell, driven by forces from the cytoskeleton. It is likely that its function is, at least in part, to speed up the transport of mol ...

which helps transport chemicals within the organism. The plasmodium may move some distance before forming the aethalium or sporangial phase, of an equal size, 4–30 cm in its longest dimension, 5–15 mm thick, carried upon a widespread, silvery, shining hypothallus, purplish black. The cortex at first papillate, however this is a fugacious or transitory phase. The capillitium, the network of thread-like filaments in which the spores are embedded within sporangia is abundant, the threads dark, netted, the nodes bearing multicellular vesicles, the whole borne upon, but often breaking away from the flattened and irregular, columellate basal strands. The spore-mass is brownish black or a dusky colour. The spores are yellow-brown, distinctly warted, and 9-12 µm in diameter. Found living on decaying organic material, such as old tree stumps, logs, leaf mould, compost heaps, and other organic debris in fields, woods, and along the roadsides. Essentially the white plasmodial phase is a single cell; one example of ''Brefeldia maxima'' in North

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

is recorded to have covered whole tree stumps, was a centimetre thick with a surface area of over a square metre and weighed up to around 20 kg - therefore technically amongst the largest cells known. Related genera are ''

Colloderma ''Colloderma'' is a genus of slime molds in the family Lamprodermataceae Lamprodermataceae is a family of slime molds in the order Physarales Physarales is an order of Amoebozoa in the class Myxomycetes. It contains three families, the ...

'', ''

Comatricha ''Comatricha'' is a genus of slime molds in the family Amaurochaetaceae. As of 2015, Index Fungorum ''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names (scientific names) in the fungus kingdom. the project is based at th ...

'', ''

Enerthenema ''Enerthenema'' is a genus of slime molds in the family Amaurochaetaceae Amaurochaetaceae is an family of slime molds in the order Stemonitidales. Genera *'' Amaurochaete'' *'' Brefeldia'' *''Comatricha ''Comatricha'' is a genus of slime ...

'', ''

Lamproderma ''Lamproderma'' is a genus of slime molds in the family Lamprodermataceae Lamprodermataceae is a family of slime molds in the order Physarales Physarales is an order of Amoebozoa in the class Myxomycetes. It contains three families, the ...

'', ''

Macbrideola ''Macbrideola'' is a genus of Amoebozoa in the family Stemonitidaceae. As of 2015, there are 17 species in the genus. The genus name of ''Macbrideola'' is in honour of Thomas Huston Macbride (1848–1934), who was the tenth president of the Univ ...

'', and ''

Stemonitis ''Stemonitis'' is a distinctive genus of slime moulds found throughout the world (except Antarctica). They are characterised by the tall brown sporangia, supported on slender stalks, which grow in clusters on rotting wood. The genus was first des ...

''.Slimemold
Retrieved : 2011-11-06

References

;Notes ;Sources * Bonner, John T. (2009). ''The Social Amoeba.'' Princeton : Princeton University Press. * Stephenson, Steven L & Stempen, Henry (2000). ''Myxcomcetes. A Handbook of Slime Molds''. Portland : Timber Press. .

Bibliography

#Bäumler,J.A. 1899: Notiz über Brefeldia. Verhandl.K.K.Zool.Bot.Gesellsch.Wien 49: 104-105. #Hechler,J. 1980: Die Myxoflagellaten von ''Brefeldia maxima'' Rost. und ihre Nahrungsaufnahme mit Hilfe von Geißelbewegungen. Mitteilungen aus dem Institut für Allgemeine Botanik in Hamburg 17: 49-55. #Lagerberg,T. 1945: Ett fynd av ''Brefeldia maxima'' (Fr.) Rost. Svensk botanisk tidskrift 39: 432-434. #Lister,A. 1888: Notes on the plasmodium of ''Badhamia utricularis'' and ''Brefeldia maxima''. Annals of botany 2: 1-24.

External links

DVD Of the Tapioca Lime Mold at Spier's Old School Grounds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brefeldia maxima Myxogastria