Photography #23 - Return of the shrooms....

Yep, more fungi (you were warned in the last post!)...

For me, fungi mark the return of autumn in the same way as wet, rainy weather and golden autumnal foliage. But there are many other reasons why I'm drawn to these odd little things...

The gills, on the underside of the cap, store the spores

Fungi were once thought of as plants. We now know they are as different from plants as plants are from animals. So different, in fact, that they have their own Kingdom of classification (There are 5 kingdoms into which ALL living things fit: Bacteria, Protista, Plants, Animals and Fungi).

Ramaria sp. - commonly known as coral fungi

A fungi from the Chantarelle family

Not sure about these ones - possibly Clitocybe sp.

A psathyrella sp. I think...

A Common Earthball

They are the great recyclers of the living world, digesting down all the dead stuff and releasing nutrients for life to re-use. They grow a bit like plants but digest their food using enzymes (like animals do)...and they've been around for about 400 million years...

Growing some Oyster mushrooms from used coffee waste

...And of course we eat them (some of the non-poisonous ones of course!), or use them to make other foods (bread, wine, beer, soy source - through fermentation), use them to make some antibiotics, and, ahem, there are some that are used for their hallucinogenic properties...not that any of you would know about those right...

A Fly Agaric mushroom below the Pigeon Tower at Rivington...

That's not all though...Over 90% of all plants depend on fungi in their root systems to allow them to take up nutrients through the soil (we'd literally have nothing to eat if it wasn't for this relationship!).

Leaf-cutter ants famously harvest leaves to bring back to their huge nests. Inside those nests, they control the humidity and temperature precisely...in order to plant tiny fungi on the leaves. The fungi digests the leaves (which the ants cannot digest) and then the ants eat the fungi - they literally farm fungi underground!!

...And some fungi turn insect into mindless zombies by taking over their brains! (who ever said mushrooms were boring!). First the spores infect the insect, then the fungi grows inside it till it reaches the brain. Then it changes the behaviour of the insect so that it climbs up a tall plant stem. It raises it's abdomen skywards and stays there until it dies...then the spores burst out, to be carried away by the wind to infect more insects...cordyceps is one example of a fungi that does this.

A fly with a parasitic fungi bursting out to release it's spores...

Oh, and did you know that the largest individual living organism on the planet is a fungus? It may well also be the oldest living thing on the planet too! It's lives in Oregon in the US and covers approximately 10 squared kilometres - and is estimated to be between 2,400 and 8,650 years old! Find out more here.

I have no idea what species these are...

A cluster of Earthball fungi -Lycoperdon sp.

...and one of my favourites - a very alien looking Earthstar - Geastrum triplex

So, now you know why fungi fascinates me so much...and you may well find another post or two about them in the near future...

Adam

All images on this post copyrighted to Adam Fryda 2018