- from cute as a button to old and dried up photographs

I’ll break my long blogging pause with something I saw back on May 20th.

Polyporus squamosus

It was right under Stew’s paws. A young Dryad’s Saddle, cute as a button was emerging from a block of sugar maple firewood (yet to be split).

A couple more were hiding in the back. At this stage of growth they certainly don’t look like a polypore shelf fungus.

Two days later and they definitely had the look.

One more day and the fungus had nearly shelved out completely.

Another day and they were more than a handful.

Today – July 1 – they look like I feel.

no fret, the old dried out feeling goes away after a couple of brews, a good dinner and a nap before bedtime.

These frosty looking mushrooms were found growing (dormant) on some maple firewood. They’re one of the most widely distrubted mushrooms in the world and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. My National Audubon Society Field guide to Mushrooms (north america) states their range extends from Maine south to Tennessee and west to North Dakota while the MushroomExpert.com only said they can be found from sea to shining sea. What their real range is in North America is still a mystery to me. All I know is they are up the wazoo around here, I find them on all sorts of dead hardwoods throughout the area.

Common Split Gill Mushroom – Schizophyllum commune

They look like tiny bracket / shelf mushrooms and can be found year round. They range in size from about a quarter inch to nearly 2 inches across. My field guides describe them as ‘hairy’ but I think they look more like frost crystals than anything else.

I’m not entirely sure if these are actually perennial mushrooms or not. They dry out when moistened they unroll their gills and begin shedding spores. I’m not sure if it’s a purly reactive response or they actually revive and produce new spores. I’ve read that they may remain dry for 50 years and still shed spores when moistened. The ones I found were dry and brittle the other day, after a day of rain they were soft and pliable.

A half inch specimen was sacrificed to get some scale.

The gills are more like folds that are split down the middle. I can see how the underside can be described as hairy.

I also read that these can be nasty. This fungus has been known to cause human mycosis in a few cases involving immunoincompetent people, especially children. In one case a child had fruiting bodies growing in her sinuses. And here I was worrying about the stuff growing between my toes.

…and now for something completely different to make us all feel better.

Yep, it snowed yesterday but it melted almost as fast as it came down. I sit by the window where the fuel oil filler pipes come out of the basement. Stewy has learned to perch on the filler cap and scratch the window screen when he wants to be let in. That’s better than Itty Bitty (see sidebar pic) who jumps up from the ground and clings to the screen.

Did I mention I need to get a new screen every spring?

I hate to toot my own horn but I’m still too excited to keep quiet. It was a good week for my photos. I was asked twice for permission to print. No money involved but I do get my name in print, probably tiny and unnoticed but what the hey. I’m just tickled purple/red someone though the photos were good enough to use in a print publication.

The first request was from a biologist and researcher at the University of Oslo, Norway. He wants to use a photo of the red belt fungus – Fomitopsis pinicola in a book about the biodiversity of decaying wood. The proposed title is The Biological Diversity in Decaying Wood and should be available this autumn from Cambridge University Press. It will be going on my bookshelf.

Red belt fungus – Fomitopsis pinicola

image linked to a larger size – 1024 x 768
from the post on Nov 25, 2008 – Red Belt Fungus

The second request was from the American Nurseryman magazine, a trade publication for growers of ornamental plants, landscape professionals and independent garden centers. They are going to use my photo of Purple Flowering Raspberry – Rubus odoratus. I believe the photo will be in the next issue, doh, I forgot to ask. They are going to send me a copy though.

Purple Flowering Raspberry – Rubus odoratus

image linked to a larger size 1024 x 768
from the post on Aug 18, 2008 – Purple Flowering Raspberry

Both images are linked to a larger size (1024 x 768). They will open in a new window and you’re welcome to use them as desktop wallpaper even if they’re a bit dated by being so ‘small’.

I’ve stopped making wallpapers for a couple reasons. I don’t use them anymore since I got the prototype Google notebook (which is always in ‘Chrome’ the browser) and I’ve run out of space on my paid hosting account. (I’m using Picasa now to store images and the free gig of storage there is being eaten up faster than I imagined)

I am happy to get requests. If you see something you like I’d be more than willing to create a background image in the size you need.