Not everything that grows in the garden is pretty or even desirable. Fellow Master Gardener Ann Gentry texted me last week to say that slime mold has been a problem in her flowerbeds this summer. She sent several pictures of an ugly yellow and white mass adorning the mulch.

Slime mold is an unwelcome late-summer visitor to the garden and playground, often appearing after a rain. Sometimes known by the unpleasant common name “dog vomit fungus,” slime mold isn’t a mold, and it isn’t even a member of the Fungi Kingdom.

Although slime molds once were grouped with fungi, they have been reclassified as members of the Kingdom Protista in the Division Myxomycetes, although older texts still refer to slime molds as fungi. I mention this fact in case you decide to do some further research on slime molds in one of your older gardening books.

Over 1,000 species of slime molds are found worldwide, although only a few affect us locally. The slime mold found most frequently in Middle Penins...