Fungi Friday - FUNGI : THE MONOCHROME EDITION

Color is definitely an important factor when trying to determine a mushroom ... or some other fungi formations ...

... so from that prospective, this post is absolutely useless.

This post is here ...

... mostly for aesthetic reasons ... I think.

I did it ...

... because I like the way in which the absence of color, in the monochrome versions, gives more prominence to the lines and shapes of these incredible life forms.

I'll try to present you a variety of fungi from my area ...

... as an exhibition of sculptures ...

... found in nature.

Some of them lush ... baroque ...

... some other simple ... more like modernist abstractions ...

... but still ... even with this art prospective in foreground, as the main theme of this collection ...

... it is impossible not to notice the pragmatic elegance of these designs in correlation with their biological function ... from the typical umbrella - like cap of many species that protects spores and disperses them like a showering mechanism ...

... the beautiful spore filled pottery ...

... of this earth star ... that disperses the spores by sending them up in the air, with a little help of falling raindrops ... ideal pressure for the ideal, humid weather condition ...
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... to the stinkhorn's pole, elongated to reach higher ground and emanate the strong smell as far as possible to attract the flies, the main spore propagators for this species ...

... the sheltering cage of the basket stinkhorn ...

... that looks like some sort of palace ... or temple ... where the flies can do their job relatively sheltered ...

... or some even more mysterious looking shapes ...

... that are here for less obvious reasons.

Clavarioid fungi look very similar one to another ...

... at first glance ... especially if you get rid of the color ...

... but if you like to explore the visual details ...

... there is a beautiful variety here too.

On the following picture ...

... you can see one of the small snails from the forest floor on one of these coral shaped mushrooms ... a combination that evokes an underwater scene. Details from the forest floor sometimes look a lot like sea floor details.

The clavarioids are not the only fungi that look like something out of the coral reef.

This species looks like some kind of sponge ...

... and this is another a bit underwater looking ... and pretty hard to define shape ... that I saw just once. And now ... back to umbrellas ... on the following picture ...

... is a very elongated version of this design.

And here a few twisted ...

... contorted versions.

Here is an umbrella on the pine cone.

This one looks like a pretty normal desk lamp.

This one like a pretty usual mushroom.

This is an example of a very creatively and photogenically contorted cap.

This is another mysterious little thing.

This is one of my favorite shots from this series, taken from under the mushrooms that were growing on a branch.

Three tiny mushrooms on the moss.

One of the many puff mushroom species.

A different shape, first of this kind in this post.

An interesting fungi cluster.
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Young, undeveloped shape of the parasol mushroom ... a simple but effective sculpture.

And now ... with this tiny mushroom on a small tree branch ...

... and the closing shot of another earth star fungi covered with droplets ... is time to end this desaturated scroll ... as always in these posts on Steemit, the photographs are my work.