"Big oozy thing that just creeps around engulfing anything it can get its pseudopods on."

Fuligo septica is a species of slime mold in the class Myxomycetes.

It is commonly known as scrambled egg slime or flowers of tan because of its peculiar yellowish appearance; it is also known as dog vomit slime mold.

Slime moulds are neither an animal or a plant. They sit firmly in the 'protista' kingdom, which basically means scientists don't really know how to categorise them.
Slime moulds are not really fungi — they are gigantic, single celled organisms with complicated life cycles.
Despite lacking a brain, slime moulds are capable of solving mazes and making complex decisions.
When slime moulds are hungry they can move about five centimetres per hour, with the aptly named 'dog's vomit' able to grow up to one-square-metre.
There are over 900 species of slime mould.
Slime mould release airborne spores like fungus to reproduce.
They feed on bacteria and fungi and are generally harmless to humans and animals.
Slime mould love to eat uncooked porridge oats
Slime mould hide from light.

One lady revealed she kept one as a 'pet' after becoming intrigued by the organism. "We just got some leaf litter, put some water on it and watched it for a while. Most of the time a slime mould will crawl off...they're everywhere."

Slime mould can survive from one season to the next by releasing fungal-like spores, making them incredibly resistant to decimation.

The key characteristics of Protists

Eukaryotic cells: All protists are eukaryotic, meaning their cells contain a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles.

Cellularity: While the majority of protists are unicellular, some, like kelp (a type of seaweed), are multicellular. They lack specialized tissues and organs.

Locomotion: It exhibit diverse modes of locomotion using specialized structures such Pseudopodia, Flagella and Cilia.

Nutrition: Protists may be autotrophic, producing their own food through photosynthesis (e.g., algae), or heterotrophic, obtaining nutrients by consuming other organisms (e.g., protozoa). Some are saprobic, absorbing nutrients from decaying matter, while others are parasitic, living on or inside hosts and causing disease.

Reproduction: Protists primarily reproduce asexually(binary fission, budding, spores), though sexual reproduction occurs in some species, usually under stressful conditions.

Habitat: Most protists are aquatic, living in freshwater or marine environments, but they can also be found in soil or other moist regions.

Slime Mould

Slime moulds are saprophytic protists that feed on decaying organic matter. They exhibit fungus-like characteristics and play an important role in decomposition. Their key features include:
They creep over rotting leaves and twigs, engulfing organic material as they move.
Under favourable conditions, they form a large, multinucleate, creeping mass called a plasmodium, which can spread over several feet.
During unfavourable conditions, the plasmodium develops fruiting bodies that produce spores at their tips.
The spores have thick, resistant walls and are easily dispersed by air currents.

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