Friday: 2 January 2009
With the warm temperatures in the latter half of December, accompanied by periodic wetness, some of the more opportunistic fungi have been making an appearance. Unfortunately most of this post is in the manner of questions rather than answers, but this is part of what we’re seeing.
Quite a few little clumps of these tiny (1 cm) growths pepper the fallen ash that the resurrection ferns of a few days were also growing on. I have them labelled as Xylaria, of which Dead Man’s Fingers is the more commonly seen species, but that’s not what this is. None of the Xylaria look quite right though, and they may be one of the Coral fungi instead. A few have the anterlike-appearance at the tips, and the filigree patterns of white on brown are distinctive.
One of the problems (besides not knowing my fungi all that well) is that I’m not sure of the age of these growths. That’s especially true of these large, leathery outgrowths, which may or not be one of the polypores. The odd thing about them are the long threads hanging from the business side of the shelf mushroom. (Larger image linked to below.)
The shelf mushroom above, and the one below are all on a fallen northern red oak at the south end of the hollow. We’ve seen this pretty one before, but in August two years ago. It looks like Tree-ear, an Auricularia species.
The fallen northern red oak has a nice platform for sitting, about four feet off the ground, and at least two different animals were sitting and pooping here. A popular place for reflection, apparently.
A few inches away is this well-formed cylindrical turd containing fairly large seeds. They look like persimmon seeds to me. I’ve seen raccoons climbing persimmon trees to get to the ripe fruits, and we know possums will eat them too. But Glenn noted that possums are very adept at avoiding the seeds. A couple of years ago a collection of persimmon fruits left outside were devoured by a possum, and it left behind a pile of seeds (no, they had not passed through the animal).
So more questions than answers this time around!
Quite a few little clumps of these tiny (1 cm) growths pepper the fallen ash that the resurrection ferns of a few days were also growing on. I have them labelled as Xylaria, of which Dead Man’s Fingers is the more commonly seen species, but that’s not what this is. None of the Xylaria look quite right though, and they may be one of the Coral fungi instead. A few have the anterlike-appearance at the tips, and the filigree patterns of white on brown are distinctive.
One of the problems (besides not knowing my fungi all that well) is that I’m not sure of the age of these growths. That’s especially true of these large, leathery outgrowths, which may or not be one of the polypores. The odd thing about them are the long threads hanging from the business side of the shelf mushroom. (Larger image linked to below.)
The shelf mushroom above, and the one below are all on a fallen northern red oak at the south end of the hollow. We’ve seen this pretty one before, but in August two years ago. It looks like Tree-ear, an Auricularia species.
The fallen northern red oak has a nice platform for sitting, about four feet off the ground, and at least two different animals were sitting and pooping here. A popular place for reflection, apparently.
| These are the pellets you might expect from a deer or a rabbit, but neither animal seems likely to me to be perching on a tree branch. Raccoon is a possibility. |  |
A few inches away is this well-formed cylindrical turd containing fairly large seeds. They look like persimmon seeds to me. I’ve seen raccoons climbing persimmon trees to get to the ripe fruits, and we know possums will eat them too. But Glenn noted that possums are very adept at avoiding the seeds. A couple of years ago a collection of persimmon fruits left outside were devoured by a possum, and it left behind a pile of seeds (no, they had not passed through the animal).
So more questions than answers this time around!
