Yeah, amazing, eh? It grows on a tree thats been on the ground for decades, near a spot I camp near when I go kayaking. Its on an island off Port Hardy, Peel Island I think, maybe Cattle Island, not sure. Here's another one of it, taken a year earlier. I think somebody said it was Shelf Fungus. I've never seen anything like it.
This is the only other picture I have of it --- taken this year. I included my hand so you get some idea of just how big it is.
Definately a shelf polypore of some sort. Any ideas the type of tree it was growing on? Often these return year after year...sometimes drying and staying there for years also. That rich rust color is just beautiful. Did it have a velvety feel to it? Tough? Woody? I'm just asking all this as there's so many in that type of polypores.....and I'm not familiar with many outside my area here in Kansas.
It looked the same this as it it did last year. The tree it was growing on was pretty decayed. I'll try to find a picture of it, I'm pretty sure I have one. Yeah, it was growing on branches of a tree like this one. I think it's been on the ground for decades. If you're interested, heres links to my kayak album that show a lot of fungal and botanical wonders of our BC rainforest: http://picasaweb.google.com/cyberhun2000/Burnett_Bay_08_Best#5252637708075704194 http://picasaweb.google.com/cyberhun2000/Seymour_Belize_2008#5253096136494227266
Excellent photos! You're journies leave me jealous to see more. Although? I don't envy you u'r burn on you're hand! yikes. Thank you for sharing that link.....stunning photos of such obvious beauty.
Thanks. It took forever to post all those photos --- glad to hear somebody enjoys them. I should go for a walk in the local woods and take photos, this time of year theres lots of interesting mushrooms and stuff, although right after the first frost theres even more ... :)
That looks like a great trip! Loved the whole album. We've paddled the chain between Goletas channel and Queen Charlotte Strait and it was the wildest kayaking we've done.
Really? Good for you guys --- I'm surprised more ppl don't kayak this area. Certainly nobody else publishes their photos to google earth through panoramio. I seem to be the only kayaker publishing photos from this area. Anything south of Campbell River seems too crowded for my tastes --- up here it really feels like wilderness. God's Pocket & the Gordon Group is a superb ocean kayaking area. Maybe I'll see you there one summer ...
I've been all over the country...have only miss Alaska, Hawaii, Florida and Georgia of all the states...been to Canada and to Mexico. It always amazes me the beauty that surrounds us...that so many of us just walk, fly, drive, crawl right on by. Good for you that you get to travel and see so much....and become familiar with it like you have so you know WHAT you're looking at. PLEASE go find some of you're mushrooms in you're local woods! It helps so many to see what is there...even those of us who are trying to help document or just photograph and appreciate. If you'd like... :o) ....this is my mushroom gallery I have on deviantArt.com....feel free to take you're time there. I'm constantly uploading new mushrooms/fungi/slime mould and just about anything else I come across. http://sauriamami.deviantart.com/gallery/#Mushrooms Again? I'm envious as CRUD that you have such beautiful opportunities! (I won't take the burned hand and attack killer mice though)
Great mushroom pics! This time of year, hiking just to view mushrooms in the woods is one of our favorite activities...of course, we also bring a bag for the edibles!
Yeah those mice were really something --- chewing the hair right off my head! And then when I trapped the one main mouse he must have been a real bad-*** alpha-male mouse who had the other, smaller mice scared to come out of their holes because when he was gone there were twice as many of the bastards! Lol Those are nice pictures. I haven't looked at all of them yet but the few I have seen are nice. Thanks for sharing them.
Mice can be crazy sometimes...u'd never think they actually have a social system but u'd be amazed I think. Take you're time with those mushroom photos....I've only got about 300,721,050 of them on CD ready to be uploaded. :o)
I ordered some spores and bought a pressure cooker to sterilize substrate so I can try culturing mushrooms this winter as a project to pass the time till next kayak season. Here, FDA zone 7 (near Seattle) daylight gets sparse in winter but I love growing things so I figured I'd try growing something that doesn't need light --- mushrooms. The more I delve into the world of fungi the stranger and more fascinating it gets. I should have some shiitake spores arriving soon and a couple others --- I already have the sterilized jars of substrate ready to go and no contamination (yet) so I guess the pressure cooker does indeed do double duty as an autoclave. And you get a crop in a couple weeks instead of having to wait for two to three months.
I've been looking into doing that as well? I've plenty of great host tree stumps in my garden that would work in the summer and I've lots of indoor garden spots thru-out my house. I've been so tempted to try this as I can only imagine the beauty of an unmunched on mushroom bundle. I know I can buy 100 plugs to grow the Oyster Mushrooms for only $13.00...or even PINK ones for $24! I'm fascinated with just watching the life cycle...from the moment they pop their caps out...to the full size blown out beauty that mushrooms can get to. A magazine that I got has so many different varieties, kits, everything! Good luck with you're gardening.
I've done it before, once. I bought a kit and boiled the hay and mixed in the spawn and cased it sure enough, couple weeks later ---- bang! Nice, tasty, fresh mushrooms. It wasn't intended so much as a way to get something to eat (although they sure were tasty) as something that was interesting and fun to do. And surprisingly easy. I always thought mushroom cultivation was enormously difficult but that's not so. Now I know how it's done I'm bypassing the overpriced kit and starting from spores --- it's all a question of sterility (with the substrate), hence the investment in a pressure cooker (aka autoclave). Wish me luck. Maybe I'll post pictures if I have anything to show for it.
