The pictured mushroom is quite large and its uppermost surface unusual…and lovely, to my eyes.
It is also, very evidently, “a pushy bastard”.
Have a close look at what has happened to the stringybark leaf atop the mushroom.
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As was true of the previous post, eagle-eyed viewers should find it easy to see a gnat on one our heroes.
In any event, zooming in/enlarging is recommended – the pictured ‘shrooms surfaces have beautiful, subtly-varied textures and colours.
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…but this post’s petite fruiting bodies are definitely fungal “fruit”.
I think they are examples of so-called “coral fungi”, as were many of the more weird and wonderful fungi we saw in Deep Creek National Park’s old-growth stringybark forest, on an easy, leisurely 75 minute walk.
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The pictured mushroom/toadstool/ fungal fruiting body was very big, very wet.
Unable to support its own weight, it had collapsed.
In terms of its species’ viability, the “collapse” was probably of no consequence whatsoever.
I think it would be analogous to an exhausted salmon, dying after it had made the epic journey upstream and successfully laid eggs or fertilised them: job done.
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Even collectively, yesterday’s three heroes were comprehensively dwarfed by any single one of the adjacent, large leaves.
This post’s mushroom is enormously bigger and heavier.
My unscientific guesstimate is that its mass would exceed that of all three of yesterday’s ‘shrooms by at least several thousand percent.
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Most of the world’s fungal mass are mycelia – tubular filaments/threads which “network”, forming mycelium.
Reminiscent of hair or neurons, those filaments/threads are called hyphae.
You won’t see mycelium in this series – it is an invisible presence, within the earth, timber and leaf litter.
However, it is worth remembering that fungi are like icebergs – what we see is only a small portion of their selves.
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If you are partial to mosses and fungi, the premier South Australian place is the floor of the old-growth stringybark forest in Deep Creek National Park.
The best time to go there is midwinter, in a cool, wet winter.
It is less than two hours’ easy driving away from Adelaide, but in a “proper winter” this forest “feels” like another planet.
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In Australian places with a Mediterranean-type climate, Spring is “wildflower season”.
However, in virtually any patch of quasi-natural “bush” – most especially, where the soils are sandy and “poor” – at least some species will be flowering, whenever you visit.
Deep Creek National Park’s stringybark forest is one such place.
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This post’s images are cropped versions of the very same photos that appeared in the immediately preceding post.
The closer the view, the more readily-evident is the fact that these plants are predators.
Above and below, you have a good view of their “dew” (which is not dew) and of some of the lured victims in the “killing field”, in various stages of being “dissolved”/ “absorbed”/ devoured.
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This post’s Drosera species really “look the part” – as meat-eaters, who kill.
Plants in general – not just sundews and other carnivorous plants – are a deal less “peaceful” than many humans imagine.
Plants’ “race” for light, space, water and nutrients is not an “everybody wins something” event,
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