But was there any competition? Yes, there was this mushroom who dreamed he was a sunflower and loved it... But now the dream is over... and the mushroom is awake....
June 18, 2024
Fungus of the Day.
But was there any competition? Yes, there was this mushroom who dreamed he was a sunflower and loved it... But now the dream is over... and the mushroom is awake....
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Photo one looks like the beginning of a sci-fi horror movie on an alien planet.
"Hey, this looks edible. What's the worst thing that could happen?"
"Hey, this looks edible. What's the worst thing that could happen?"
I know. It looks like a fine bakery cookie with icing splattered on top. At the same time, somehow the word that popped into my head was "Oreo."
The "mushroom who dreamed he was a sunflower." See that's the kind of thing you can't get just anywhere and it sets this blog apart. Waaaay apart.
"I know. It looks like a fine bakery cookie with icing splattered on top. At the same time, somehow the word that popped into my head was "Oreo."
The first thing that popped into my head was; "Boy, that thing looks deadly. I bet it's poisonous."
The one on the bottom looks like a shitake that some critter pooped on.
I wonder what that top looks like under a black light.
I am really enjoying the daily fungi posts. Down in Austin all my fungi tend to look like dog poop.
A diversification of fun guys.
Nothing about fungus or mushrooms this time.
I felt pretty crappy for most of last week, with generalized aches (especially my legs and head), alternating warm-sweaty and cold-clammy spells, and lung and sinus distress ranging from ticklish throat through chest congestion to a lot of snot.
It was worrisome for about four days, and I don't feel 100% even now.
My wife started the same process or sequence as my own was improving, and just now she got a positive result on the last of our free gummint Covid tests. We've both tested a few times since 2021, but never plus-atively until now, and even when we felt worse.
These I can't ID.
Photo 1 is the cap of some "Agaric" (the form of a gilled mushroom with a central stem), decomposing, with the white likely being a mold growing on it (possibly a slime mold or a second mushroom... true molds are Fungi, so I'm describing the form, not the classification).
I know of one kind of mushroom that grows from blackening caps of a different species, Asterophora: https://mushroomexpert.com/asterophora_lycoperdoides.html
Photo 2 is another Agaric of some species, but I don't feel confident in IDing it any further without having a better idea of what's fruiting in the area right now.
What's the point of decorative or splashy colors in a fungus? They don't need them to attract a mate or even to attract some birds to eat their seeds. Fungi don't have much of a sex life. Maybe that's why they're so successful in evolutionary terms. Economy of effort. It's a puzzlement why they waste so much time and effort being colorful or taking on extravagant shapes.
@Narr Likewise, I also tested positive last Friday for COVID. First time for me. My doc, via video call, was amazed too. The new quarantine rules are: once your fever is gone for 24 hours you’re free to go out, preferably with tight fitting mask.
The silver lining is now I will have natural immunity. So maybe it is a lucky thing to get this mild case now.
@Rosalyn C--
I never checked my temperature, though there were a few times when I'm pretty sure I had one; my wife checked hers yesterday and it was a little high, but not unusually so.
We have assumed since early '21 that she had an early bout of Covid then, and that I probably have had it somewhere along the way since.
I'm not sure she has informed her doctor . . . that is asking for trouble, if you ask me.
I agree with @amr about that first one. Way too old and rotten to tell what it once was. The white plaques are probably mold, as he says. There are a lot of molds that grow on the remains of other fungi, and at least one of them (Hypomyces lactifluorum, the Lobster Mushroom) produces an edible fruiting body that is enhanced by the infection the same way certain cheeses and wines benefit from other molds.
The second one is pretty weather-beaten too, and hard to identify, but if I had to guess, the yellowish color, rather large fruiting bodies, and clustered growth from a wood substrate would suggest Gymnopilus. If you saw it dropping rusty brownish-orange spores, that would clinch the ID, but this one has probably shed its spore burden long ago. Some of the members of this genus produce psilocybin and psilocin, and are therefore hallucinogenic, but disgustingly bitter to eat. The other major contender here would be honey mushrooms in the genus Armillaria, but they are a bit too light colored for that unless they are extremely sun-bleached.
@William: What's the point of decorative or splashy colors in a fungus? They don't need them to attract a mate or even to attract some birds to eat their seeds.
Good question. It may be that their colors are just random manifestations of compounds they produce for some other purpose. We are not really sure why some are so toxic, either.
Fungi don't have much of a sex life.
Au contraire, they have one of the most bizarre and complicated life cycles of any organism. They don't have sexes, they have "mating types". The number of mating types varies from 2 to 22,000, and a given haploid spore only needs to find one other spore that is not of the same mating type to have a successful fusion to form a new diploid zygote. If fungi had a meat-market singles bar it would be an all-out orgy, diverse beyond the dreams of today's gender kooks.
And that's only regarding sexual reproduction. Most fungi can reproduce asexually, sometimes via multiple pathways. Then there are the lichens, which introduce another entire layer of complexity.
Maybe that's why they're so successful in evolutionary terms. Economy of effort. It's a puzzlement why they waste so much time and effort being colorful or taking on extravagant shapes.
Much of the strange morphology of fungi, especially in regard to the hymenial surface where the spores are produced, has the effect of increasing the surface-to-volume ratio so more spores can be generated in a smaller space. Some have gills, some have pores, some have spikes or teeth like the edible hedgehog mushrooms, and more besides.
Madison area radio personality Gordon Govier does a Facebook thing called Fungus Friday, but only when he's near home. Didn't happen this week because he was at Mesa Verde.
@Hassayamper: Thanks for an informative and interesting answer. It's very seldom I've received such a comprehensive answer to an idle musing...My interest in fungi is not strictly academic. I have a toe nail fungus that's a remarkably durable creature. It will probably outlive me and, I've just learned, has a better sex life.
This is fun, and I am Gus.
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