FRUITING BODIES OF SHELF FUNGI
Also called bracket or plate fungi
I want to post some of the beautiful fungi in our area called shelf fungi. They also are sometimes referred to as bracket or plate fungi because of the most common shape and sturdy, almost wood-like texture of these fruiting bodies.
You can find them in all sorts of interesting shapes, every color of the rainbow, and from teeny tiny to immense!
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| These look like little skirts - very small,and growing on a twig |
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| These are HUGE - as big as a turkey platter and growing on a fallen log. |
These images are merely a sampling - many more types exist and grow in the woods. It's an adventure to find new kinds, and I've become familiar with locations I can find the new fruiting bodies of old friends each year.
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| This is an example of fruiting bodies from a previous year. You can see how tough and woody they are. |
The actual fungus lives inside dead or dying trees and logs and, every year or so, they "bloom" with a special organ that makes the spores - seeds of the new generation - and distributes them. This is called the "fruiting body" and it is what we commonly see.
Instead of gills, Polypores have tubes for the spores to go down.
Although I know the names of some of these, a large majority remain un-named. Some of them are considered edible, but after seeing so many I think the edible ones would probably be close cousins to cardboard in texture and probably flavor too! The best advice I can pass on to you is this -
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER EAT WILD MUSHROOMS OR FUNGI UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERT OR HAVE AN EXPERT WITH YOU WHEN GATHERING!!!! One small mistake could have deadly consequences.
You can read more about Polypores (the official name for Bracket Fungi) here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypore
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/polyporales.html
Since this is largely a visual post, here are the images I think show a decent sampling of what I've found. Not all my pictures have been processed yet (I am never caught up!) so some types are not represented. If you have questions, I'll try my best to answer them if you send me an email at ladylycosid8eyes@gmail.com.
Nature is a stunning artist and gardener:>)
Thank you all for your time! We are at over 6,100 views and growing; that's amazing to me and I love that people are enjoying the posts:>) The below quote is from my very first blog post. It is why I am doing this and why there will never be ads to annoy you!
WOW! My First Page:>)
We live in such a busy world, and so many beautiful and interesting
things just plain escape our notice. Come here to see some of the most
common and most lovely bits of our natural world, at least those in
Pennsylvania and the nearby states.
If you are made aware of something you never heard of, never saw, never imagined before this blog, something good happened.
I am not a scientist, don't have a college degree, and am now retired
from decades of work as a supervisor of customer service departments in
some very large companies. Work kept me inside the office, inside my
car, inside my house for more hours each day than I was outside. I left
home in the dark and came home in the dark. The only times I could
enjoy our beautiful outdoors was on weekends and vacations; how sad is
that!
The aim here is to post something interesting at least once a week. It is my hope that you will find both the pictures and the writing interesting and worth a few minutes of your time.
Thank you for giving this humble blog a look/see. As I learn, things will get more duded up. For now, things will be simple.
