Georgetown mystery.

Spotted at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Volta Place in Georgetown (DC) today. I always admire the Lutheran Church at this corner. Their sense of gardening matches my own -- whimsical, unplanned, over-packed, riotous. Today however, I discovered a new feature that may be the church's doing. This big fungus was manually affixed to a tree next to the sidewalk by the church. My sister will know what it is. But I wonder if my sister will know why it's there? She used to live in Georgetown but I don't think she drove 4 hours from her current home in the northern Appalachian Mountains to put it there. On the other hand, my sister -- an obsessive mushroom forager -- is whimsical and prone to unplanned, riotous acts so who knows.

Here's the church in October:

Fungi and moss.

 

[Boy, I really phoned it in yesterday, didn't I? Blogging about a day-glo Polish statue of Lenin taking a leak.]

The mushrooms at the top were in my backyard a week or so ago. I love when they turn black--so beautiful. The other three pictures are from the Patuxent Wildlife Center in September. The book I just finished, The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, has some wonderful passages about moss. I wanted to put one here, but unfortunately, I read an electronic library copy of the book and it's no longer on my Kindle. Another mark against electronic books (which I'll continue to read anyway because it's just so easy, and I'm all about easy).

Ganoderma Tsugae Tincture, for what ails you.

My clever sister (center of group picture, behind bearded young man--Jake--Rebecca's first sort-of boyfriend from high school) sent me this concoction. She harvested the Reishi mushrooms, top, and turned them into the tincture, middle. She and my brother-in-law (first bearded man on right, behind Rebecca's right shoulder) have been taking it for a year and haven't had a cold since. After I developed a whopping big head cold complete with two infected ears just hours after the wedding, my sis sent me a bottle of the stuff with instructions on how to take it. I'll report back next summer on its effectiveness. Meanwhile I'm taking nasty antibiotics (boo hiss) to clear up my ears and allow me to hear all the scintillating conversations I'm missing. [My niece is the dark-haired, tallish young lady in the back row towards the left, and the tallest man in the back is her husband.]

Fungus?

This looks like a shelf fungus but it's very hard, like wood. I guess it's possible that a fungus could get that hard. I might have to saw it off the limb to study it.

More shelf, or bracket, fungi.

There are all these interesting words you find when looking up stuff about fungi. Like "clades" and "conks." And this: "Other examples of bracket fungi include the sulphur shelf, birch bracket, dryad's saddle, artist's conk, and turkey tail."

I like this particular specimen because it grew on a stump created by the beavers when they lived in the pond next door. See the pointy top? Beaver-gnawing did that.

Fungus from my sister's neck of the woods. Not sure what they are but they sure are purty.

What kind of fungus is this? I'll bet my sister knows.

It was growing on a dead limb in the woods next to my house. So pretty on the bottom. But what is it?

My sister told me to stop fretting about global heating (yes, heating) and go find mushrooms. So I did.

What's this? you ask. It is my sister's mushroom harvest the first time (I think) she and Bro-in-Law went seriously fungi-hunting this year.

I don't yet know the details of what they ate (if anything), what was poisonous (if any were), and how much more they've harvested since this picture was taken a week or so ago (if any have). Sister Kathy said she felt a mushroom obsession coming on, and she rarely fails to follow an obsession.

More fungus among us.

These nice specimens are on a tree stump next to the pond next door. The beavers got the tree a year or more ago, and then it looks like there may have been a stupid human trick with fire. Looks and feels ashy to me. I wonder if the fungi would have grown even if the stupid humans hadn't applied fire to the stump?? You just never know. It's things like this that make me so interested in climate change. What are we doing right now that we aren't aware of that might have an impact 100 years from now? How can we understand it all so we can make the right decisions in the right order in the right place? I'm not a denier or even a skeptic. I'm a confused. I heard an architecture critic say the other day that we are so fixated on car emissions when actually buildings emit more bad stuff into the atmosphere than vehicles. I guess we just do the best we can for now and hope. Or have faith. Or knit.

More fungi.

Except for the top one these mushrooms came up in one of my compost piles. The big ugly monster at the top is from the park next door.

Very odd fungi. Hard as aged leather, not soft and mushy like most mushrooms.

Fungi near a compost pile.

More fungi.

I think I just learned (at http://gaiagarden.blogspot.com/) that the mushroom on the bottom is a false parasol (or Chlorophyllum molybdites) and it will cause "severe abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, and projectile vomiting" if eaten. Ewwww. The orange and yellow 'shrooms are the top and bottom of one fungi.

Unidentified mushroom. My niece and nephew (in-law??) have told me how to raise mushrooms and it seems so easy. Involves logs and spores and time.

Fungus.

Beauty in fungus.

I won't be eating this but I hope to go gathering morels soon, another fungus, in my dad's secret morel forest.

Fungi from the park.

Mushrooms from the Takoma Park Farmers Market.

More about mushrooms. Morels in this case.

Why can't I remember this? Mushrooms ARE fungi. ("Fungus" sounds so poisonous. "Mushroom" sounds so benign and homey.) There are morels, picked one April in the most unlikely place: in a patch of woods near a very busy intersection at the junction of Takoma Park, Langley Park, and Silver Spring. My dad discovered this source decades ago. It's common among morel hunters to not reveal the exact location of a good source of these delicacies so I won't say any more. But they are definitely not poisonous and will cost you big bucks if you try to buy them or order them in a restaurant. And they are yummy sauteed in butter.