Don't know were this guy belongs(another planet maybe) but I found it climbing up some timber on an old doorframe on my shed after recent rains. I think it's a slime mold, a mixomycete belonging to the Phylum Mixomycota. These weird life forms are closer to plants(algae and seaweeds to be specific) than fungi. They are a mass off plasmodium with no cell wall. Just wierd! I know it isn't a cactus but I thought it may be of interest.

Heheh nuts

Slime moulds are freaky as.

''Single-celled slime molds demonstrate the ability to memorize and anticipate repeated events, a team of Japanese researchers reported in January.
The study clearly shows “a primitive version of brain function” in an organism with no brain at all.''
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jan/071
WOW!

The one in my yard growing on mulch was quite a different type, one of these I am pretty sure:
Can something have a more unappealing common name than a Dog Vomit Slime Mold?



(photos from google)
This link came up when I was searching for DVSM, check it out for some truly outstanding Tasmanian fungi porn:
http://tasmania.bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=82&start=0
(scroll down). Some of the best photography I have ever seen... that near flourescent red one is my fave.
I am astonished.

What a strange organism...

I've read that these things can actually move by themselves. Has anyone here observed this?

Only in the Movies...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051418/