the fungus among us

_{this is the forest that most of us see and appreciate, breathtaking in autumnal splendor. the phrase should be, "cant see the trees for the forest"}

I've was creating a huge forests of PA post, but I lost my focus, and I'm feeling as if I should just get anything posted - as long as it has a few words and lots of weird photos.

_{underside of some leathery fungi growing on the side of a tree. might be called horseshoe something, don't quote me}

Its been years since I've lived on the east coast. Returning to the area for a visit after years of living in CA and CO opened my eyes to the things that I missed.

_{i love how the moss growing on this tree bark looks like a mountain ravine, as if it were part of the topography on a map}

I never really appreciated the woods when I was younger, because I didn't look at it from a macro level, so I missed all the really peculiar things that we take for granted at the 20/20 level.

_{a couple of wee fuzzy brown shrooms and moss hang out on the remains of a tree}

One neat thing about PA is the rainfall and moisture, which makes for a lot of great moss, algae, lichen and various fungi throughout the woods.

_{what i used to call a fairy home tree. my friends and i loved to build tiny fairy rooms between the creviced roots}

In Colorado, trees mostly just dry out, There is a bit of fungus, but not at the level you see in a humid deciduous forest. The moisture can also be a bad thing.

_{algae that has inundated this small pond, but it did not stop the frogs from hopping across the surface and plonking in the water as they sang}

I remember mushrooms growing in the corner of my room as a kid because the roof leaked. It kinda put me off getting too friendly with fungi.

_{vines embedded in the tree bark live off the tree as much as moss and fungi}

_{macro of moss covered fungi clinging to the side of a tree. some trees were covered head to toe in fungi}

Some of the fine detail macro photos were really difficult to capture with a depth of field focus, and I know its because there's some macro trick i am missing or maybe my lens just sucks. whatever. Sorry they are so blurry.

_{a deluge of red moss gave this tree a fairytale ending}

_{macro of the same tree. my camera could not do it justice}

Fungus is definitely weird, and besides a few 'experts', we really know so little about it in general.

_{this almost looked like peppered seafood. i googled all of my pics and got the weirdest guesses; this is fried egg.}

Many types of mushrooms are known to be medicinal, from remedies passed down through traditional practitioners. Much of that knowledge has fallen out of use thanks to the strictures of conventional medicine and pharmaceutical companies, who want to sell us what is freely available. Alas we have lost most of that knowledge.

_{This might be what the chinese call tree ear. I had never seen a fungi so large. It measure about 1x1.5 feet in diameter, and was growing in a crack in the bark}

_{a bright orange blob of fungi appeared out of place in this dark spot}

_{at first i thought that this was a tree that had seen fire, but research tells me that its from a fungus that invades compromised trees leaving a black rotted inner layer}

lichens are a weird combo of fungi and algae that grow together- yet separately. They tend to appear as silvery green or grey patches or "leaves" that grow on tree trunks and rocks.

_{leafy green lichen grows tother with a mustard colored moss}

_{its almost as it its a flower in bloom.}

_{this combination of mosses and microscopic fungi fascinated me, because the color is similar to photos of weed..}

_{notice the tiny mushroom heads crowing in between the moss and lichen.}

I had wanted to be able to identify some of the species here, but trying to pick out one type from hundreds of similar tiny photos with scant description is dicey at best.

_{fungo possibly called turkey tail, quite common throughout the few forests i visited}

_{macro of that same tree}

I hope you have enjoyed all of the weird wonderful freaky alien things that I found growing in the woods.