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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Rain + Sun = Fungus!



















We had a couple nice spritzes of rain, then some beautiful warm days. So, voila, there is mold and fungi sprouting all over. Although no large toadstools were found (yet) these representative three smaller fungus were digesting dead plant material and fruiting all over the yard. I wasn't too happy to find the fruiting bodies on the handle of my weed hoe, indicating the fungal hyphae must be pretty well established in the wood. It's cool looking, though evil. This particular tool is ancient and rusty, not well cared-for and seldom used. But aside from that, it's possible this fungus could invade other more valuable wood, such as my house.

The chili ristras have reached the end of their luck; I threw them into the green waste after discovering they were covered with mold. Not sure what those little white puffs are in the leaf duff . . . they look like very small button mushrooms, doing their bit to create compost out of the fallen leaves beneath the abutilon and lemon verbena, so the plants will grow well so the bugs will have plenty of food and habitat. Thank you, fungus (sometimes).

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