Fungi

Most of us are familiar with the usual mushroom shape that is used for our garden ornaments and sketches in children's books and comic strips

However, there is a vast array of different fungi out there in the woods if one goes seeking these species in nature's vast collection of wonders. With a multitude of colors adorning these un-heralded gems.

We have the dark colors of purples and blacks, the two tones of red and whites. There are also green mushrooms that can be hard to see on the forest floor, especially in some of the open areas where the mosses take over vast areas.

The different shapes can amaze the forest traveler with such an assortment that it boggles the mind. One that is so unreal to be a mushroom is the coral mushroom. It looks so much like the plants we see in the sea. It is easily understood how it came to bear this name.

There are also some fancy patterns and wooly stems that are more amazing with an array of blending colors that any designer would be pleased to have created.

We can include a great variation in sizes too,
from those not much bigger than the pine needles that fall to the ground each year.

To huge mushrooms that spread out over the forests floor, dwarfing others trying to make these mossy areas home.

Besides the shapes and the sizes of mushrooms, another factor is their growing habits. There are those that grow singularly, perhaps in isolated places. Others tend to favor the closeness of living in clumps and create large masses. One of the most popular though is the spreading group that can form huge patches as they struggle for the light and their place in the world.

We have them in open areas amongst the mosses.
and in the shade, where certain species do extremely well. While others lie in the protection of fallen trees

We have them growing on dead wood that has fallen, some covered with freshly growing moss. With other fungi growing on the fallen trees from many years past and now covered with a multitude of forest debris.

There are others that are using some of the dead trees have not yet reached that stage and still stand in this ever changing habitat.

All these species have their own place in the world, and some go a step further. They use this debris from the dead and dying trees. One small mushroom uses pine cones as a growing medium to develop. Others find the most improbable places to live their lives, growing out of the end of an old broken twig. Others, growing on very thin stalks and in clusters, use whatever medium is at hand. Not large in themselves, they still hover above others fighting to survive in the very same environment.

Besides these long thin stalks, there are many thick and heavy ones. They are very strong also, pushing up through some tremendously solid substances. Some of the fancy looking stalks may distinguish one species from another.

There are also a vast variety of unique fancy tops to some mushrooms. Although these tops can have such frilly finishes that we admire, it is usually the colorful ones with strange patterns that usually catch the eye, once again showing natures vast assortment of little miracles. Within this group of wonders we can also find the long slender tops on mushrooms. These can be three or four times longer that they are wide and stand solidly together in there own place.

Other rather strange additions to the fungus family, are those that look like blobs. Again we have those huge specimens that do not resemble anything like a mushroom. Some of which can grow up to 10 inches or more. While others are rather insignificant except for the bright colors that give them away.

Then we come to the strange and wonderful. The odd looking shapes with some fantastic colors. White blobs that appear to have fallen on a black and white stick. The purples of an apparent likeness to an opening flower and then the reminder of a catching mitt. Wonderful shapes indeed.


		A contrast between the whites and the black

This white mushroom was similar to a drop of plain white acrylic with no markings at all. The black specimen looked like a rolled up piece of black paper. Two more very strange plants.

This orange colored mushroom is one more of those brightly colored specimens that are easily seen as they tend to grow along pathways and roadsides.

With the contrast between these two being quite different. The one on the left being edible, the Lobster Mushroom. Although it is a parasite, living on other mushrooms. Fortunately however, its host is usually a Russula or other non poisonous plant. On the right however, we have an Amanita, one of the members of the most poisonous groups in North America. Many other mushrooms are poisonous and should not be eaten unless you have expertise in mushroom collecting.