Log pimples

 An uprooted tree lies on the shore. It's been there a while; the bark is gone, the wood is spalted, taking on a bluish tinge. And all along its length, tip to ground level, small mushrooms are bursting out. On the roots, exposed along with the rest of the tree, not a single one is visible.

The largest mushrooms are about 1 cm. across.

Spalting is caused by fungi growing inside the dead wood. I found it interesting that neither the mushrooms nor the spalting effect showed up in the roots.

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Un árbol entero, arrancado del suelo con todo y raices, yace en la arena cerca de la zona de altamarea. Tiene tiempo allí; ya perdió la corteza, y la madera está teñida por hongos que crecen en el interior y pintan la madera de gris y azul. Y a todo el largo, honguitos brotan. Menos en las raices, expuestas al igual con el tronco, pero ahí no aparece ni un honguito, ni se han pintado; mantienen el color natural de madera seca. Algo interesante.

Fungal leftovers

The markings on a log near the shore caught my eye.

White spalting, aka white rot

The entire log was covered with these. The patches were slightly raised above the wood, and spongy to the touch. Although it was a dry day, the whole log felt damp. I couldn't find any of the mushrooms which commonly cause white rot, like turkey tail or other bracket fungi.

This is the work of a microscopic fungus or possibly a bacterium that eats the pigmented part (the lignin) of the cell walls of the wood. The lignin functions as part of the support structure of the wood; as the fungus removes it, the wood becomes soft. Since the lignin also works as waterproofing, this whitened wood is also more absorbent.

Brown rot destroys the cellulose in the cell wall, leaving the pigmented lignin behind, so the wood disintegrates into little chips, but stays dark. White rotted wood holds together longer.

Brown rot in a stump. The wood is dry and flaky and crumbles in my hand.

Lichen under snow

Whatever the weather, lichens bravely soldier on. I found these on an old railing yesterday.

Spalted wood, rusty nail, lichens and melting snow.

A leaf lichen with an unusual centre, sort of like a tiny, green cauliflower.

Lichen "leaves" are like snowflakes; no two alike.

Lichen, snow, and a budding branch.

Wikipedia has a long article on lichens. Some interesting tidbits:

Lifespan is difficult to measure because the definition of what constitutes the "same" individual lichen is not precise: ... lichens grow by vegetatively having a piece break off, which may or may not be considered to be the "same" lichen; moreover, two lichens can grow into each other and then become the "same" lichen.

The European Space Agency has discovered that lichens can survive unprotected in space. ... two species of lichen ... were sealed in a capsule and launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket .... Once in orbit, the capsules were opened and the lichens were directly exposed to the vacuum of space with its widely fluctuating temperatures and cosmic radiation. After 15 days, the lichens were brought back to earth and were found to be in full health with no discernible damage from their time in orbit.

(No wonder they don't mind bare cliffs!)

They can even live inside solid rock, growing between the grains, and in the soil as part of a biological soil crust in arid habitats such as deserts. Some lichens do not grow on anything, living out their lives blowing about the environment.

Most poisonous lichens are yellow.

In the past Iceland moss ... was an important human food in northern Europe, and was cooked as a bread, porridge, pudding, soup, or salad. Wila ... was an important food in parts of North America, where it was usually pitcooked. Northern peoples in North America and Siberia traditionally eat the partially digested reindeer lichen ... after they remove it from the rumen of caribou or reindeer that have been killed.

And this:

Microscopic lichen growing on concrete dust. Square: 1.7 mm. Photo: Bob Blaylock.

Lichens confuse me, and the more I read, the more confused I get. But they're fascinating, so varied and so inventive; worth the effort to try to make sense of them.