The gentle, and not so gentle, autumn rain brought the fungi to fruit - and that sent me to find one of my favourite biology books - Helen Curtis 'Biology', a weighty tome. I have been relearning about prokaryotes and eukaryotes, bacteria and viruses. I know - weird, but it's been rivetting. Right now I'm reading about the emergence of plants. But to fungi ...
We've participated in a couple of online workshops to learn a bit more about this vast and diverse Kingdom. I find it totally fascinating albeit rather bewildering. I've been poking about in our wee garden and I found a few species of fungi growing - who would have thought! The explosion of growth also sent me out creeping through the damp undergrowth in Westgate Park. And there I saw two fungi I had never seen before; they're quite stunning - the Red Cage and delightful Earth Star. I'll post some pix for you to browse shortly.
Now I should be able to tell you what these are growing in the pot that ONCE held my parsley, but my books are in the car so .....
One needs to see underneath to establish if they are gilled or not. I have fungi-back from crouching with mirror and camera in hand and trying to focus - life presents lots of interesting little challenges!
While we are focussed on the micro world, do you know about our microbiome? No, don’t go away, this is interesting really and its actually positive which is a refreshing change. Here’s another rivetting episode in my 'did you know' series!
So .... the human body is made up of an estimated 37 trillion cells – skin, liver, brain, gut etc etc. But the microbes – micro-organism such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi – living in and on our bodies are thought to outnumber that at ~100 trillion! But relax they are in the main beneficial (NOT corona virii - that we know about so far), many are essential to our survival doing things are bodies can’t. Our micro-biome - all those little guys - is an enormous invisible ecosystem that acts like a giant ‘shadow’ organ (not meaning to be derogatory) helping us to digest plant matter, make vitamins, regulate our immune system, form new blood cells, modulate brain signals and so on and on. Hmmm and you thought you did all that yourself! Some leading scientists argue that animals (us) and plants are not autonomous entries but holobionts. Dynamic biomolecular networks of many different species working in a symbiotic relationship for mutual benefit - a discrete ecological unit. There are endless examples but for instance, some corals in the Great Barrier Reef are totally dependent on fungi for their survival and certain species of orchids cannot reproduce without fungi and our forest need them to break down litter to release nutrients back in to the soil. That puts a new complexion on evolution - today’s good news story.
We've participated in a couple of online workshops to learn a bit more about this vast and diverse Kingdom. I find it totally fascinating albeit rather bewildering. I've been poking about in our wee garden and I found a few species of fungi growing - who would have thought! The explosion of growth also sent me out creeping through the damp undergrowth in Westgate Park. And there I saw two fungi I had never seen before; they're quite stunning - the Red Cage and delightful Earth Star. I'll post some pix for you to browse shortly.
Now I should be able to tell you what these are growing in the pot that ONCE held my parsley, but my books are in the car so .....
One needs to see underneath to establish if they are gilled or not. I have fungi-back from crouching with mirror and camera in hand and trying to focus - life presents lots of interesting little challenges!
While we are focussed on the micro world, do you know about our microbiome? No, don’t go away, this is interesting really and its actually positive which is a refreshing change. Here’s another rivetting episode in my 'did you know' series!
So .... the human body is made up of an estimated 37 trillion cells – skin, liver, brain, gut etc etc. But the microbes – micro-organism such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi – living in and on our bodies are thought to outnumber that at ~100 trillion! But relax they are in the main beneficial (NOT corona virii - that we know about so far), many are essential to our survival doing things are bodies can’t. Our micro-biome - all those little guys - is an enormous invisible ecosystem that acts like a giant ‘shadow’ organ (not meaning to be derogatory) helping us to digest plant matter, make vitamins, regulate our immune system, form new blood cells, modulate brain signals and so on and on. Hmmm and you thought you did all that yourself! Some leading scientists argue that animals (us) and plants are not autonomous entries but holobionts. Dynamic biomolecular networks of many different species working in a symbiotic relationship for mutual benefit - a discrete ecological unit. There are endless examples but for instance, some corals in the Great Barrier Reef are totally dependent on fungi for their survival and certain species of orchids cannot reproduce without fungi and our forest need them to break down litter to release nutrients back in to the soil. That puts a new complexion on evolution - today’s good news story.
Carefully turn over bark and leaf litter and you find all manner of interesting things - a whole are industrious world. Fungi are stationary but this is mycelium which grow outwards to look for water and nutrients to transport to the fruiting body so it can continue to grow. Beautiful pattern. This was under a stand of eucalypts.
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