Fungusamongus

 

Here are some of  my favorite Fungus and Lichen sightings

from this summer.  I thought when I unpacked all the books

I brought home from school, my fungus identification book

would show up but, much to my disappointment, no such luck.

:-(

 

 

I think these are called Indian Pipes - that is the only

one of the group that I have even an idea about.  I know

that the members of the kingdom are notoriously difficult

to identify even with a key.

 

This one makes me think of garden sprites and gnomes.

I love these minute garden vignettes that you find on the rotting logs

or growing on bare rock...decay... succession... death... rebirth ~the cycle of life.   

Slime Mold?  Like lichen, not neatly classified.  I'm not sure that is

what this is, but it is obviously slimy and certainly appears to be molding.

This is just a tiny little specimen - I found a much larger patch of it later.

It looks like staghorn coral to me and I think it has a similar name.

Here it is in a yellow version.

Isn't this cool!?  It is only about 3cm tall.

 

...and an orange version.

I love everything about lichen!  The fact that it is actually two organisms

from 2 different kingdoms, it's many different forms; it is both an indicator species

and a pioneer species.  American Indians used it for dye and medicine and reindeer eat it.

This is growing out of the side of a tree and looks a little like a shelf fungus,

but I don't think it is.  It is soft and a little fuzzy and mostly hollow inside.  There

was a slug inside - perhaps it had eaten its way in?

All this needed was a little frog peeking out...and a different forest...

Button Fungus?  Maybe I made that up.  The caps were

the size of shirt buttons, but it looked like a bouquet.

Rock Garden

This was so cool...red-orange on the inside, creamy on the outside.

About 5 x 6 cm on a short fat stalk.

This little beauty is about 3cm tall - tiny, thin stalk

and a cap about the size of a small button.

 

Fungi can be identified by their spores and making spore prints was an activity I did with my 7th

graders back in the day when we did science because it was cool as opposed to science to take a test.

 

Spores, like pollen, are as individual as the organisms that they come from and are one of the ways that scientists identify and date ancient climates and habitats.

 

G'ma Nancy loaned me her July/August Discover magazine.  There is an awesome article for you mycology fans, "Mushroom Manifesto".  Adam and LeAnna, I wonder if this is the source of your

mushroom boxes from last Christmas??  REALLLY interesting!!

(This is a special edition Discover, Invisible Planet, and it is awesome if you can get a hold of it.

Thanks, Mom...I really will return it)