Slime moulds

Smarter than you think

Myxomycetes or slime moulds have no brain. But despite that they can find their way through a maze and are even capable of controlling a robot! They are amoebas that are able to form a fruiting body that we can usually observe with the naked eye. Before this special group of unicellular organisms creates a fruiting body, it forms a slimy mass; the plasmodium. This plasmodium is unicellular and feeds on various organisms such as bacteria. 

Our myxomycete collection contains about 40,000 specimens, mostly originating from the donation of Elly Nannenga-Bremekamp and her student Hans van Hooff. The specimens from Central Africa were collected by Prof. Dr. Jan Rammeloo, the former director of the Botanic Garden.

Read more about the research into myxomycetes in the Botanic Garden here.