Badhamia species of species of plasmodial slime mold growing on the underside of a piece of bark in Taylor County, Wisconsin. The spherical sporangia are fruiting bodies that contain spores. A plasmodial slime mold is an autonomous organism that begins life as it emerges from a spore. In its first stage, it is an amoeba. If this organism finds a partner, they coalesce and turn into an ameboid organism. Under good conditions, this develops into a plasmodium, an organism with a cover and with millions of cell nuclei. The plasmodium nourishes itself from bacterias, yeasts, fungi or dissolved nutrients. Slime molds were once regarded as a fungus but later classified with the Protista.