Fungus

Tony, No reason to, this definitely is G. pectinatum .

Tony, The back up of your opinion can be found in the book Failed God by John Rush, who describes the mind control, brain wash and power tactics of the christian churches in great detail. Christianity perverted personal belief and religion (the deity is within yourself) by the active creation of politically and economically motivated organisations called churches, which clergy claimed to be the only mediator with a non-existing god and threatened or even killed everyone disobeying church orders or worshipping a personal deity instead. Years ago, a Dutch writer, who wrote that God was a donkey, with whom he had anal sexual intercourse, was summed in court and prosecuted for blasphemia. I still wonder how a "deity", of which the existence can not be proven, can be offended by such a comparison and why, if he or she did exist, didn't strike back by killing the writer with a strike of lightning.

1. The opening and closing of the landbridge of Gibraltar was an ongoing and cyclic process of shifting of tectonic plates lasting millions of years, with the result, that the Mediterranian See more then once completely dried out and layers of rock salt and gypsum were deposited on the basin floor. The present Mediterranean See with the Street of Gibraltar and the Black See with the Bosporus were formed during the latest Ice Age. 2. The only earthquake proven and listed in this area is the earthquake of Antioch, May 526. As the eruption of the volcano of Santorini, followed by a tsunami destroying the bronze age Minoan society, of which today the remains of the buildings and the incredibly refined fresco's and artwork still can be seen and admired at Knossos, took place in 1.600 BC, this is the only tsunami the writers of the bible could have selected as the great flood to threaten non-believers with if they would not convert to the christian religion.

Rob, Chaos in practice explains a lot more .

John, And after this experience you decided to start (tree and) mountain climbing ? ---

Rob, If it smells sourish, guttates from the tubes and the spores are white, this definitely is Fomitopsis pinicola . And the pinkish mushroom is Mycena pura var. pura.

Rob, Looks like Psathyrella candolleana to me.

Tom, As I wrote before, Omphalotus illudens is a necrotrophic root parasite, which means, that the mycelium at first mainly invades the living tissue of the roots and later on decomposes the wood of the roots as a saprotrophic, which implicates, that eventually both the condition and the stability of the tree are affected because of losing major roots. And when the mycelium starts (panic) fruiting in bundles with big FB's, as is shown in the picture, the risk of windthrow increases. Zwamgroet,

David, The first one maybe is Agaricus augustus, but could just as well be A. silvaticus. And the second one is Mycena pura var. pura.

I think the article was based on the same research findings.

Alex, The flood, that was used as a model for the great flood in the book of Genesis, probably took place in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean See during the reign of the Minoan king Midas, the builder of the palace and labyrint of Knossos on Crete, from which the designer Daedalus and his son Icarus escaped after they had been captured and held prisoner by the Minotaur. In reality it was a tsunami, which flooded the island of Crete and the coasts of some north eastern African countries after the volcano of Santorini exploded and blew up half of the island.

Great pictures, shouldn't these be in the other Monkey's Fungi Directory ?

Sure, but can all other forum members too ?

Utriformis means with the shape of a womb or bag pipe (without the pipes). And this is a giant puff ball which forms its spores inside its "belly" (Gasteromycete) on top of a sterile "stem".

Tony, When fruiting on oak or beech, E. truncata is sometimes mistaken for Bulgaria inquinans, an ascomycete with black spores, that stick to your fingers and stain them black.

Rob, No, both black Exidia's are saprotrophic pioneers living on/of dead cambium and sap wood of branches or thin standing trunks of deciduous trees (mostly oak), which FB's break through the bark when fruiting. They for the greater part fruit in late fall and during winter.

1. Yes, the black teleomorphs produce ascospores and the grey anamorphs conidiospores. 2. Part of it, which is on or attached to the bark, is K. deusta, and part of it, which shows itself after the bark falls off, is the pioneer saprotrophic Diatrype stigma decomposing (soft rot) the dead cambium and the top layer of the dead sapwood.

Calvatia utriformis or a resembling North American Calvatia species.

This G. lipsiense was 8 metres high on the trunk of a 100+ years old bifurcated beech. It was 60 cm in diameter and turned out to be completely hollow, when several years after the upper right half of the combined trees had split off (see first photo), the top of the other half also came down (see second photo). Perennial Gano's of this size "empty" or recycle the sterile inside (trama) of their FB's to "loose weight" and form new fertile pore layers from. At the base of the trunk were several larger and some small perennial brackets of G. lipsiense, of which the mycelium was competing with K. deusta, which had colonized most of the right half of the trunk and was defending its territory effectively. The first photo shows the already receding tube layer, which is an indication of the lack of intact wood to decay and gather energy from. The second photo shows the remaining lower part of the trunk covered with teleomorphs of K. deusta. ---

Rob, 1. The human mind, i.e. our brain and especially the white matter, the "mycelium", which is an interface between and interconnects both our hemispheres, would not have reached to its present capacities of colour sight, cognition and speach or language, i.e. intellectual and artistic development, if our Neo-Lithic ancestors had not used colourful hallucinatory images eliciting "Liberty Caps", such as Psilocybe mairei (see : Tassili rock art) and P. semilanceata and/or P. hispanica (see : Selva Pascuala cave murals in their tribe rituals and ceremonies to get into contact with their gods. 2. See : Touchy subject. 3. Humans are characterized by basic existential anxiety and fears, needing all kinds of "religious" or superstitious rituals and ceremonies to be soothed and controlled.

Tony, Maybe here ?

Matt, I suggest you read some of the above cited literature by Allegro, Irvin and Rush on the non-existence of Jesus, Mary or God and the pagan origins of Judeo-Christianity, one of the "monotheistic" religions originally based on with the use of psycho-actives or entheogens - such as the Fly Agaric, Liberty Caps, Henbane, Mandrake, Atropa belladonna, Datura and Cannabis - associated fertility rituals and ceremonies lead and performed by shamans. Even the pope has stated, that in spite of mind control methods and political power and mission tactics, it is problematic to draw young people to the religion of the "Mother Church", because there is no historical proof for Jesus being a real person.

Without wanting to restart the discussion, for those who are really and truly interested in where Judeo-Christianity and its associated monotheism came from, see : - J.M. Allegro (1970/2009). The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. Gnostic Media. - J.R. Irvin (2008). The Holy Mushroom. Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity. Gnostic Media. - J.R. Irvin & A. Rutajit (2009). Astrotheology & Shamanism. Christianity's Pagan Roots. Gnostic Media. - J.A. Rush (2008). Failed God. Fractured Myth in a Fragile World. Frog Books. - J.A. Rush (2011). The Mushroom in Christian Art. The Identity of Jesus in the Development of Christianity. North Atlantic Books. And the following websites and footage : - The Pharmacratic Inquisition video. - Clinical Anthropology. - Astrotheology & Shamanism : a review. [ame=http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl1OD2848xg]Interview John Allegro[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOu9tV6uy2E]Interview John Allegro by Van Kooten & De Bie (1976)[/ame]

Graham, I think this is an annual Ganoderma, probably G. resinaceum, because of the shiny red "lacquered" surface showing to the left side of the left reddish brown spore covered bracket.

Although not all the information is correct, I like to share this footage of the acceleration of the sporangium (not spores) of a Pilobolus species. Underneath the black sporangium, which contains the spores, the top of the flask-shaped FB's have a lense, which lets through sunlight causing the fluid inside the "flask" to heat up, expand and explode and shoot the sporangium up to two meters away. The long stalked FB's are capable of moving the top in the direction of the sun in order to let the light pass the lense at the right angle. Photo : Pilobolus crystallinus. ---