Funguary Day 4: Morel

Fun fact, there are mushrooms living in your lungs right now!

Humans breathe anywhere from 500 to 100,000 spores daily depending on local environmental conditions. The fungi have a variety of ways to survive the immune response of the human body. Most are harmless and either die or do nothing at all. However, some fungi spores inhaled are possible pathogens or cause respiratory issues, and others are essential to a healthy microbiome .

So, if you’re breathing right now, just know that there's spores in that air, and your lungs are a nice cozy environment for them :)

A team that (almost) rivals Ivory and Ranboo

“vote scar!!” “No vote zam!!” Yap yap yap YAPPPPP NO I SAY WE VOTE BOTH. Put them on the same percentage, I want to see them both on a team

i fear they would be unstoppable

Woods adventure :)

Earlier today I went into the woods to hunt for bones with my grandpa, first thing we did was find where all the tracks were down by the creek, and there were a LOT. We found mostly deer tracks, but there were some raccoon tracks, rabbit tracks, and coyote tracks mixed in

As far as dead things go, there was some rabbit fur and feathers about, but no bones. There's been a hawk in the area lately, so it was probably him.

Of course, I did find fungi :D Its winter right now so theres not many about but the bracket fungi tend to stick around year round

I'm not sure what species it is, so if anyone knows let me know. There was also some reishi growing out by the wood pile, those have been growing there for almost a year now.

This horribly spiked honey locust tree was out to get me, and it did in fact spike me.

I was out in the woods a good 45 minutes before I headed back, and there were sadly no bones or antlers to be found. I did find some pretty blue glass and a crayfish claw though :D

Then I headed to the barn to see if any owls had left some bones for me. They had not, but the lighting was really nice :)

Funguary Day 17: Pink Waxcap

Pink waxcaps are also referred to as “ballerina waxcaps” because when mature the cap looks like a tutu. They are most likely to be found in acidic, sheep grazed fields in the UK. While edible they should not be harvested as they are extremely rare

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!

Funguary Day 3: Spotted Cort

This is a lovely mushroom, and also a perfect example of mycorrhizal fungi!

The mushroom’s mycelium surrounds the roots of the tree and helps the tree to absorb water and nutrients. In exchange, the mushroom is provided with food and amino acids produced by the tree.

See the rest of my posts for Funguary here!

Not flowers :D

These flowers are not flowers, but rather a parasitic fungi's "pseudo flowers" it uses to spread its spores

The fungi infects the plant and siphons off its nutrients. In order to reproduce the fungi sterilizes the host plant, preventing it from making its own flowers.

It then forces the plant to grow yellow "pseudo flowers" that contain the fungi's spores. These spores are collected by pollinators same as the plant's own pollen would be and transferred from plant to plant, spreading the infection.

Funguary Day 19: Red Basket Stinkhorn

Most mushrooms spread their spores by releasing them to the wind, but not stinkhorns. Stinkhorns contain their spores in a stinky goo called gleba. The Red Basket Stinkhorn’s gleba is located on the inside of its lattice. Flies are attracted to the foul smell of the stinkhorns and flock to it, getting the gleba on them and spreading the spores to wherever they go next. 

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!

Ghost pipe flower

The Ghost pipe flower is a pale white flower that lacks chlorophyll. Instead of photosynthesizing, it gets its nutrients by tapping into the network of fungi beneath the forest floor. Sometimes they are referred to as fungus flowers due to their resemblance of pale mushrooms.

Funguary Day 16: Mycena Chlorophos

Mycena Chlorophos is what's known as a foxfire fungus- a fungus that glows at night. The mushroom regulates its glow through a circadian rhythm, at night the levels of the chemical compound and enzymes that react to produce the bioluminescence peak. 

It is theorized that the light it emits at night is to attract beetles and other insects that might help spread the spores similar to how flowers use scents and colors to attract pollinators

Once an experiment was ran by Olson in which two cultures of the biter oyster, another foxfire fungi, were grown and placed on a completely dark box under constant conditions. He left them alone for a week with a camera sensitive enough to pick up their bioluminescence. What the camera showed was that the mycelium grew in an irregular circle, with the glow more intense at the center than at the edges. After a couple days there was a sudden shift, in one of the cultures a wave of bioluminescence passed over the network from one edge to the other. A day later a similar wave passed over the second culture. Though the fungi were kept in the dark for several more weeks, the flare up never occurred again. Years later, Olson still did not know what had caused the sudden flare.

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!

I need everyone to know how amazing these lil guys are I love the sm

Funguary Day 21: Birds Nest Fungi

The bird's nest fungi is named for its nest-like appearance, with “eggs” inside the main cup. The “eggs” are actually called peridioles and they're where the mushroom stores its spores. They're usually attached to the peridium (the main cup structure of the fungi) by a thin cord called the funicular cord. The cord is coiled inside a purse (see diagram below) until spore dispersal occurs. 

Bird's nest fungi are reliant on rain to disperse its spores. Raindrops trigger the spore release by splashing the peridoles out of place, as visible in this video. The purse ruptures and the cord uncoils as the peridoles are splashed into the air. Sometimes the funicular cord will wrap around a branch or twig and attach to the new substrate via the hapteron (see diagram below).  

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!