Magic Mushrooms

Sometimes it's the small things that are worth observing.

We're usually attracted by the large, the loud, the brightly colored. We're also limited by our senses. Many animals use or emit sounds, but often the sounds are beyond our hearing range, both in frequency and in magnitude. We see only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum and many plant and animals exploit frequencies in the infrared or the ultraviolet. We're also subject to our physical dimensions. We can't see the very small or the very large. We don't notice phenomena that occur on very short or very long time scales.

Given all this, it seems there are many things that I'm going to miss on a hike, and that's assuming I'm really paying attention! Nonetheless, it's the little surprises that make it worthwhile - the things that make me think "hey, I never noticed that ..."

These tiny mushrooms fall into that category. I noticed them growing on the bark of an Ashe Juniper fence rail at the entrance to our property. It helps that they're bright orange, but they really are very small, less than a quarter inch tall. They are easily overlooked and I've never seen them again. They were growing in the small crevices of the juniper's bark. I'm assuming there was a tiny bit of decaying organic matter there, perhaps the bark itself, on which they were feeding.

They only grew on the horizontal fence rails. I didn't see any on the vertical posts. I wonder what caused that. They were also only growing on the top fence rail, not the bottom one. Does that mean anything? Do they only grow on Ashe Junipers or do they also grow on other trees? Do they have to grow in tree bark or might they be found in a pile of leaves? How long do they live? What triggered their growth? Was it the temperature or humidity?

I have no idea what kind of mushrooms they were and I'll probably never find out. The magic of these mushrooms is the sense of wonder they stirred. It's amazing that such tiny things can hold so much mystery. Is there anything that you walk by all the time, but never notice?

They're Amanitas?

We went to the Spherical Exhibition reception at the A Smith Gallery in Johnson City last night. It was very well attended and I saw and spoke to quite a few fellow Hill Country Photography Club members. Afterward we saw the Johnson City Lighted Hooves and Wheels parade. It was a fun evening!

One of the HCPC members, Lois Schubert, asked me if I knew what kind of mushrooms were in my photograph, "After the Rain". I told her I'd been trying to identify them without success. She said they were amanitas which are extremely poisonous. She said she's seen yellow ones too. I mentioned that the ones I saw were white because, of course, "After the Rain" is a black and white photograph.

When I got home, I started researching to see if I could pin down exactly what kind of amanitas I saw. Amanita is the name of a genus which contains about 600 species. The genus includes some of the most toxic mushrooms known worldwide. About 95% of all the deaths due to mushroom poisoning are caused by amanitas. Quite a scary group and something you don't want to fool with.

The ones in our backyard might have been Amanita polypyramis. The range is right and they're found among oaks which is where I saw them.

Another possibility is Amanita microlepsis.

Many of the identification guides describe the underside gills and the stalk, which I did not photograph or observe. I'm really careful about mushrooms and didn't even want to touch or disturb them. That means that I may never know for sure what kind of amanita they are, but I'll keep looking.

Spherical Exhibition

Another one of my images was selected for the Spherical exhibition at the A Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas. The juror was Carla Ellard who is the Assistant Curator, SW & Mexican Photography Collection, Wittliff Collection at Texas State University in San Marcos.

After the Rain

Please be sure to visit the A Smith Gallery web site and view all the images accepted into Spherical.

The opening reception for Domicile will be on Saturday, November 27th, from 4pm to 7pm. Johnson City's Lighted Hooves and Wheels parade starts at 6:30pm, so you should plan a day trip to view the exhibition and the parade.

"After the Rain" is a photograph of a small set of mushrooms that popped up in our yard after a recent rain. I don't know what kind they are, but as always with mushrooms - if you don't know what they are, then assume they're poisonous.

The largest one was about 5 inches in diameter and they only lasted about 3 days before withering. Mushrooms are fungi and the part we think of as the mushroom is actually the fruiting body of a network of tiny thread-like parts in the soil called mycelium.