Slime mold
![Iridescent slime mold, Diachea leucopodia. Berkeley, California, USA](/Images/godic/202501/03/Slime_mold_inc._magnification0654.jpg")
![Slime mold Stemonitis fusca in Scotland](/Images/godic/202501/03/Slime_mold_stemonitis_fusca0654.jpg")
![Fuligo septica, the](/Images/godic/202501/03/Fuligo_septica_bl10654.JPG")
![Mycetozoa from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of Nature)](/Images/godic/202501/03/Haeckel_Mycetozoa0654.jpg")
Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms that can live freely as single cells, but aggregate together to form multicellular reproductive structures. Slime molds were formerly classified as fungi but are no longer considered part of that kingdom. Although not related to one another, they are still sometimes grouped for convenience within the paraphyletic group referred to as kingdom Protista.