Pearly Droplets on Fungus & Many Mushrooms at Tugman State Park! (+9 insets!)

(+9 insets!)

On the Hunt for Fungus!
You probably know that one of my favorite finds are mushrooms, and it's always something I'm looking for whenever I go on a macro stroll. It took a while to find any while we were at Tugman but eventually I hit pay dirt! Slowing down to a creep, I discovered mushrooms peeping out from beds of moss, attached to logs and even peering down at me from lofty heights on tree trunks. I even found an American yellow fly agaric, the blond version of my bucket list mushroom, the Amanita muscaria. It was easy enough to find various species of shelf fungus, and at one point I discovered a huge one right next to the trail that was bristling with droplets. Eying the beads of moisture closely, I couldn't help but ponder…those aren't dew drops, so what are they?

Those Droplets are called Guttation and They Occur in Plant Species Too!
This moisture oozes out of many types of fungus at times of rapid growth with proper temperature and humidity. They can be clear or tinted with colors from yellow to blood red. Some mushrooms use this guttation to create a protective slime that makes them glossy in appearance (I iincluded a picture of a Cowboy Mushroom found on our property, and it's a clickable link with many insets)

In plant species, guttation happens at night when the pressure of excess water in roots forces moisture out of the leaves. This will ring a bell to you when you think about leaves that have beads of water perfectly arranged around the edge of a leaf! I always wondered how dew could have formed so perfectly that way…and now I know that it wasn't dew at all!

This article is brimming with awesome photography and a lot more information about guttation, which I encourage you to read and enjoy! Read it and Weep: Fungal Guttation

Immortalized Before Being Mutilated
The two pictures of this lovely bracket fungus turned out to be very fortunate timing. Located along the longer Eel Lake trail, Steve and I had admired this prominently positioned fungus each time we passed and when I came back with my macro lens I got the pictures I'm sharing today. A couple of days later we made our successful hike to the end of the trail and back, and admired the eye-level bracket fungus on the way in. On the way back we encountered a very noisy group of kids headed our way, led by an obnoxious young adult. Disturbing the peace of the forest, they yelled back and forth and none of which were observing safe distancing. We noticed that the leader had a knife and was looking around and cutting things off trees. A while after we passed by, I noticed a bracket fungus with a huge section sliced off its bottom. Wait. THAT WAS THE BEAUTIFUL SHELF BRACKET I'D PHOTOGRAPHED! Suddenly it hit me--that jerk was mutilating everything he found of interest along the trail! That explained the branches, bits of mushroom and fungus we kept finding littered along the path as we made our way back. What a shame. What a jerk. But I did get these pictures for all of us to enjoy!

Fungus Insets Galore!
I'm including images of the wonderful mushrooms I've processed from our trip to William Tugman State Park and I hope you enjoy the show (I also added the few I put on earlier trip posts too)

I hope all of you are doing well, keeping safe, dry and warm!

Explored on 2/26/21; highest placement #4.