Often in the fall, after a hot dry summer, I see clumps of a bright orangey-yellow gelatinous substance on trees or logs in the forests where I hike. I knew it was a fungus but today decided to find out more. It is, in fact, called 'jelly fungus' though I like its other names better: witches butter, or - my favourite - yellow brain fungus. You can see why:
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| Yellow brain fungus |
Apparently the fungus was there all summer, but in hot dry weather it is small, nondescript, and virtually unnoticeable. When the rains come, it acts like a sponge, absorbing up to sixty times its weight in water!
1 comment:
I HAD to learn more about this strange stuff so googled it and found a very interesting (readable) article so am sharing with you, http://www.sierrapotomac.org/W_Needham/Witches'Butter_070205.htm
Pretty cool stuff! Had never seen it before.
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