A Four-Part Introduction to Slime Molds

Over the past several weeks, we’ve explored a world that many people never realize exists.

We’ve met organisms that spend part of their lives as giant single cells, watched them transform into astonishing fruiting bodies, and admired the intricate beauty revealed through macro photography and microscopy.

If these articles have sparked your curiosity, we’re excited to invite you to continue the journey.

The New York Mycological Society is proud to introduce a comprehensive online course dedicated to the study of Myxomycetes.

Designed for beginners and experienced naturalists alike, the course guides students through every stage of understanding slime molds.

You’ll begin by learning their biology and life cycle before moving into field recognition, collecting techniques, and habitat selection. As your skills develop, you’ll explore microscopic identification, learning how to recognize spores, capillitium, lime deposition, ornamentation, and other features used by taxonomists around the world.

The lessons will also introduce modern taxonomy and the evolutionary relationships that continue to reshape our understanding of these remarkable organisms.

Throughout the course you’ll find:

• Beautiful field photography
• Detailed microscope imagery
• Illustrated diagrams
• Interactive quizzes
• Practical collecting techniques
• Identification exercises
• Scientific references for continued study

Parts of a myxomycete

Whether you’re a mushroom enthusiast hoping to broaden your knowledge, a macro photographer searching for new subjects, a microscopist eager to explore intricate structures, or simply someone fascinated by the hidden diversity of nature, this course provides a structured path into one of biology’s most captivating groups.

The forest is full of extraordinary life that often goes unnoticed.

Once you begin looking for slime molds, you’ll never walk through the woods in quite the same way again.

We hope you’ll join us in discovering this hidden world.

Enroll Today

Registration for the New York Mycological Society’s Myxomycetes course is now open. Begin your journey into one of nature’s most remarkable—and most overlooked—groups of organisms.