Slime mold
Slime molds are a type of ooze that live in close symbiosis with numerous varieties of fungi.1
Ecology
Slime molds are closely linked to the carpets of fungi that grow on them, and depend on them for survival. Slime molds are not capable of digesting food on their own, and depend on their fungal symbionts to digest organic matter into forms that the slime mold can itself absorb and utilize. Many of the fungi that grow on slime molds have over time mutated to become deadlier than their wild ancestors, and their ability to digest organic matter is rapid and efficient enough to serve as a weapon against other living things. As a result, contact with a slime mold's surface can infect other creatures with a wasting disease known as fungal rot. The fungi, in turn, benefit from their relationship by gaining access to the ooze's mobility and thus being able to access greater amounts of food than they would otherwise. In addition, the mushrooms growing on a slime mold also allow their host to blend in more easily with its environment.1
As a slime mold moves, it instinctively keeps its coating of mushrooms, mold, and plant detritus exposed on its upper surface. This gives these creatures a distinctive undulating movement, instead of the fluid slithering of other oozes.1
Slime molds typically inhabit temperate woodlands, but varieties adapted to life in caverns and sewers also exist.1
Slime molds reproduce asexually when they encounter pre-existing fields of mushrooms, mold, and other fungi. When they find a suitable area, slime molds split off small portions of their bodies into autonomous blobs, which over a period of several months absorb both the fungi of their new environment and each other until they coalesce into a single juvenile slime mold with its own coating of symbiotic fungi.1
References
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 . “Monsters A to Z” in Bestiary 2, 249. Paizo Inc., 2010