A gardener was stunned to find a mysterious black substance growing on a strawberry plant in their garden.
The baffled resident, who lives in Eltham in Melbourne's north-east, discovered the strange blobs growing under the plant.
Curious about the bizarre discovery that the gardener made to Reddit on Wednesday and uploaded photos of the caviar-like substance.
A gardener noticed a group of strange black blobs (pictured) growing on a strawberry plant in their backyard
“Overnight, eggs appeared on my strawberries – apparently eggs?” the gardener wrote.
“Can anyone help identify?”
The photos showed the black spores growing along the base of the plant and along the stems of the plant.
The small, round growths seemed to sprout from the ground and take over the plant.
The resident said days of rain and humid weather could have caused the small black blobs.
'The gardens have recently been mulched with pea straw purchased from Bunnings,'
Several users commenting on the gardener's post tried to guess what the slimy substance could be and saw the funnier side of the resident's dilemma.
“Forbidden blackberries,” one user wrote.
'Mulberries? I actually thought they were at first,” said another.
'Forbidden caviar.'
Others were closer to the target.
“Is this slime mold?”
The suspected blobs are actually a type of slime mold, a species similar to mold
The suspected blobs are actually a type of slime mold, a species similar to mold.
Dr. Kylie Agnew-Francis, a mycologist and medical chemist at the University of Queensland, said the species is commonly found in Melbourne.
'It [looks] to me as Lindbladia tubulina,” Dr. Agnew-Francis said Yahoo.
'There have been a few sightings of this species that way…'
Slime molds are an organism formed by a single cell and are not considered a plant, animal or fungus.
There are more than a thousand species of slime molds around the world, and they eat bacteria, fungi, and other forms of nutrients to grow.
Slime molds are not believed to be harmful to humans, but it is not yet known whether they are poisonous.
'If it doesn't cover all the leaves, I doubt any long-term damage will occur. They come and go very quickly,” Dr. Agnew-Francis said.
The species grows in large groups in various parts of Australia.