We love fall not just because of the weather, the colorful foliage, the fall bloomers, but also for the fall fungus. It seems like some of the most incredible fungus of the year happens in fall. When we go outside to take plant photos, it’s hard to resist the amazing fungi as well. Like sand castles at the beach, fungi are quite ephemeral, so our only memories are through captured images. Here are few shots from the last week.
Tromping through the woods near the nursery last week and ran across this beautiful example of devil’s urn fungus (Urnula craterium). The original type specimen from which it was named in 1822 was from North Carolina.
Last week we had a few rainy days, which resulted in some amazing patches of Dog Vomit fungus (Fuligo septica) on mulched areas in the garden. I remember back to my Master Gardener days, when you could always expect early spring phone calls from frantic gardeners looking for something to spray to rid their garden of this terror. The reality is that it causes no ill effects in your garden.
Dog vomit fungus, which has a worldwide distribution, was first named back in 1727, so it’s been around a lot longer than most of us. Why can’t we learn to embrace this amazing natural phenomenon? Other than not appealing to folks who were raised as germaphobes, this is one of many amazing shows that nature provides.
Not only does dog vomit fungus not bother your plants, it’s not actually a fungus. It belongs to a group of saprophytic slime molds, meaning it feeds on decaying organic matter. If the common name turns you off, you can use the newer PC name, Scrambled Egg slime mold. Within a couple of days, the color of the fruiting bodies will fade to brown and it will fade away, but isn’t it cool while in fruit!
Alright, we’re not bending to the equal time fungus lobby, but here’s a really cool lichen we photographed during a recent botanizing trip in East Texas. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could just pick these up and transplant them..
