Dictyostelium purpureum

Dictyostelium purpureum is a species of Dictyostelium.

D. purpureum is a distinct species from D. discoideum, although it belongs in the same phenotypic grouping. Like D. discoideum, it exhibits a robust multicellular life cycle, and shares some of the early signaling molecules with D. discoideum. Both species spend vegetative growth preying on bacteria in the soil, and when starved, aggregate to enter multicellular development that culminates into a fruiting body with resistant viable spores (D. purpureum is so named for its strikingly purple spores), and supporting stalk structures.