Cypress Bowl Mushroom Foray Part I: Fungi

Yesterday Achiru and I tagged along with a bunch of fellow fungus/slime mould/botany freaks on a hike up Mt. St. Mark (I believe) in Cypress Bowl part on the north shore. The frequent stops to admire some of Earth's little aliens at the beginning were soon followed by a grueling hike to the top. Grueling, at least, to someone who tends to live in the lab, and cyberspace.

Since there's lots of pictures, I'll split this up into three parts: Fungi, Slime Moulds, and Views + Misc. Appologies in advance for my failed attempts at retaining taxonomical data -- I cannot remember all the names, whether scientific or common, to save my life. Seriously. I SUCK at taxonomy. I think it's a bit overrated anyway, but that's a rant for another day. So I'll just use whatever I've remembered of some of their common names, or just refer to them descriptively. Even mycologists have coined LBM - Little Brown Mushroom. I think that's a valid taxonomical categorisation. It makes life easy for me. Maybe because I'm not a mycologist...

(again, photographs by Achiru)


L - Jelly fungus R - Bird's Nest fungus with an unexploded spore capsule


L - Forgot the name...but really strange black mushrooms! R - Witch's Cap mushroom


L - Bracket Fungus (Polypora) R - guttation on a bracket fungus - water droplets secreted by the actual mushroom, not condensation as dew droplets.


Some cup fungus ( ascomycetes)

That's all for part I, I'll put the residual fungi in part III as I have to run...