Today's Nature Find (10/12/17) - What Is This?
A couple of days ago, I read a post by @hethur240 about the honey locust tree. I am not familiar with them, so I took notice of the little clusters of spikes that erupted out of the trunk here and there. It is definitely not a tree you would want to climb!
Fast Forward To Today
Anyway, I decided to venture a little bit deeper into the nature area behind the school during today’s lunch-time nature walk. The leaves have begun falling from the trees, the grasses are dying, and I could see my way through a little bit better. I was walking along a firebreak when a fallen piece of timber caught my eye. It had a couple of spiky clusters extruding from it. What a coincidence, right? Now, chances are that I wouldn’t have even noticed it had I not read @hethur240’s post so recently. I went in for a closer look, and… it wasn’t a woody type of spike like those I had seen in the article. They were more hairlike. Was there a caterpillar hidden there amongst all that hair? Had this rotting log grown some eyelashes? Look and see for yourself!
Hair of the Log
Definitely NOT A Honey Locust
I had no idea what it was! And, what do you do with interesting nature things when you have no idea what they are?
You poke ‘em with a stick!!
When I did, a swirling puff of dark spores came billowing out like black smoke from a burning tire. It must be some type of fungus! Check out the video down below.
Cloud Of Spores
Interestingly, the hair-like thingies were not as brittle as I imagined they would be. None of them broke as I brushed through them with my stick. I still have no idea what this might be, so I was hoping that some of my fungus loving friends out there could point me in the right direction. If you have any ideas, please let me know!
ALSO,
Don't miss out on the scavenger hunt that I'm trying to get going. You'll have some fun, make some new connections, and maybe even win some SBD!! The more people who are involved, the more fun it will be and the more money you could win! So, come on and check it out!
All photos and video were captured by me using a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
Thanks for reading today’s article! If you're into science, nature, or photography, maybe you would like to check out some of my other recent content:
Those are some species of Stemonitis, which are actually slime molds, not fungi.
It's difficult to narrow it to a particular species without looking at the specimen under the microscope.
I wouldn't have guessed that! Thanks for the info!!
Thanks so much for the mention! I wish I could help you identify the weird, spikey thing. I even looked through my mushroom guide and didn't find anything that matched. It's a very strange-looking critter, that's for sure!
No problem! That's what Steemit is all about!
I actually just posted this week's nature identification thread! I'll do some research, but weird fungi like this are definitely not my area of expertise.
Awesome! I'll post the pics there, too.
Never seen any in my part of Arkansas. I'll keep an eye out!
No idea about that strange one. I haven't seen that in our place.
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