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| Psychedelic concentrics: turkey tails radiate from the wet and weathered wood of a coast live oak. |
Okay, I'll admit, all fungi are pretty freaky. But in a world where our own human bellies harbor bacteria that have their own genomes and life cycles, and also have the ability to affect our moods and even make us crazy, then what isn't freaky?
I like that of all the "mushrooms" I photographed this morning, only one looks like an actual mushroom.
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| I'm not even sure whether this is a cup fungus or a slime mold. I've never seen it before. [UPDATE: I believe this is Cannonball Fungus (Sphaerobolus stellatus).] |
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| Here's a larger group of them. (As always, you can click on an image to make it bigger.) |
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| Nearby were these Eyelash Cup Fungi, with the mellifluous scientific name of Scutellinia scutellata. |
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| A two-headed toothed jelly fungus. |
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| Smiling coral fungus. |
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| Same set-up (let's call it Still Life with Coral Fungus, Lichen, Mushroom, Polypody, and Bay Laurel Leaves), but pulled back a little. I especially liked the mottled bay laurel leaves, and now that I'm home I wish I'd thought to photograph them seperately. |
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| I've always called these fun guys Stump Bubbles, but I'm embarrassed -- nay, mortified -- to say that I've never actually tried to key them out, although I did kinda sorta think they were Psathyrella sp. I took a phone snap of them to see if my little ID app could handle them, but I wasn't sure if the app was correct -- until I also checked iNaturalist's Mt. Tamalpais collection. So it looks like they are called Common Stump Brittlestem (Psathyrella piluliformis), but I'm going to stick with stump bubbles. |
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| I was surprised to find this bear's head fungus still going strong today. I last saw it the last time I went up to check on my trail cams on 12/10/23. |
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| Wow, a new year and we get bobcats galore!? I wish. This is a composite of still frames from a video clip. |
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