Fossil fungi, a little snippet of interest

[sean freeman]

Thanks Gerrit, I am intrigued by lichens to be honest they certainly play a critical role in the degredation of minerals bound into rocks and seem so often to be over looked when it comes to measuring ecological diversity. A very specialised field and so for sure understandable that it should be somewhat removed from most commentators focus.

 

Walking with folks that are captivated my lichens and miniture fungal fruiting bodies can certainly be a lot slower than most are used to....I know I can be very annoying to walk with when others are keen to get some exercise and a work out from their tramping.

 

Recently took a stroll in one of the small and heavily stressed headland national parks not far from the office just after a rainstorm the rehydrated lichens on the granite boulders were truely beautiful...one was almost black and resembled seaweed.

 

The Wandering Arborist: Burliegh Heads National Park

[David Humphries]

Fine blog sean, like the content & style

 

 

 

Interesting article Tony. That would be such a cool item to have as jewelry or on the mantlepiece

 

Better indeed than having the Cullinan diamond !

 

 

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[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Thanks Gerrit, I am intrigued by lichens to be honest they certainly play a critical role in the degredation of minerals bound into rocks and seem so often to be over looked when it comes to measuring ecological diversity. A very specialised field and so for sure understandable that it should be somewhat removed from most commentators focus.

 

Walking with folks that are captivated my lichens and miniture fungal fruiting bodies can certainly be a lot slower than most are used to....I know I can be very annoying to walk with when others are keen to get some exercise and a work out from their tramping.

 

Recently took a stroll in one of the small and heavily stressed headland national parks not far from the office just after a rainstorm the rehydrated lichens on the granite boulders were truely beautiful...one was almost black and resembled seaweed.

 

The Wandering Arborist: Burliegh Heads National Park

 

I think lichens are amazing, and a great example of "natural inclusion" neither one or the other having the capacity to colonise the new sterile land without the other and so in the beginning they got together (plants and fungi) and found a way. given time life always finds a solution to a problem, that of the balance between filling a receptive space, that cold infinite space and the paradox of being of a pioneering spirit. That paradox being that by paving the way and making a more receptive space others soon follow and soon force you on to find a new place not yet so busy with those that follow your blazing trail of exploration and preparation.

 

Fungi are the true masters of ecology, paving the way to a colonisation of a baron waste land newly formed, and then allowing more complex life to develop in that receptive space they create. They then evolved to take advantage of each and every organism that evolved and included us all.

 

 

 

Interesting article Tony. That would be such a cool item to have as jewelry or on the mantlepiece

 

Better indeed than having the Cullinan diamond !

 

 

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Yes i thought the same, would make a fine jewel, not a big fan of jewelry in the traditional sense but a pebble of this polished up and on a cord would be a superb choice!

[Fungus]

1. lichens ... they certainly play a critical role in the degredation of minerals bound into rocks and seem so often to be over looked when it comes to measuring ecological diversity.

2. Walking with folks that are captivated my lichens and miniture fungal fruiting bodies can certainly be a lot slower than most are used to....I know I can be very annoying to walk with when others are keen to get some exercise and a work out from their tramping.

3. Recently took a stroll in one of the small and heavily stressed headland national parks not far from the office just after a rainstorm

 

Sean,

1. They do and not only on rocks, but also on bark of trees and other substrates, on which they are an important bio-indicator of acidification and nitrification.

2. The same goes for my wife and me, always walking "with our eyes" instead of "with our feet", which makes us not the best company to be with for friends who are more interested in tramping without noticing the true wonders of nature.

3. Nice pictures, the gilled mushrooms will probably be a Mycena, the bracket fungus an indigenous species I have no idea of.

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[sean freeman]

Lovely pics Gerrit , have attached three shots from that walk at Burleigh Headlands...

 

Best wishes for the holidays and 2012.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RobArb]

lichens are ace:001_smile:

[Fungus]

three shots from that walk at Burleigh Headlands... Best wishes for the holidays and 2012.

 

Sean,

. Does the middle picture show a Peltigera species ? And best wishes to you too.

[Fungus]

lichens

 

Tony,

The first one seems to be a macrofungus looking like a lichen such as Athelia epiphylla.

And I think the 7th photo shows a myxomycete such as Comatricha nigra fruiting on a Coniophora species.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Tony,

The first one seems to be a macrofungus looking like a lichen such as Athelia epiphylla.

And I think the 7th photo shows a myxomycete such as Comatricha nigra fruiting on a Coniophora species.

 

Thank you for clearing up that anomoly (first shot)

 

as for the little fungi wondered when someone would pic up on it!

 

It was growing on a mold that was growing in and upon some highly degrade Pfiefferi brackets.