Today, I stumbled upon fungi while doing my morning activity, which was to fix our plants that have long been forgotten because of many priorities. I woke up this morning to read the last chapter of my book and then figured out my plants needed a hand from me because weeds were already forming around them and dried leaves had fallen on the pots. I honestly don't know the names of these plants because my mother gifted me these greens to have some past-time chores. Watering the plants and caring for them eases my worries and stress in the morning, and it gives me a light and bright energy the whole day. Who here also does the same as me?
While fixing some weeds crawling in the plants, I saw this half-burnt bark my mother got in front of our house, in a nearby bush where woods and barks were piled up by the neighbors who didn’t want these on their houses. The sun was bright and yellow and I could feel the warmth of Tuesday. I felt grateful to be breathing December’s breeze while I tended nature.
I had a closer look at the log and found a small pimple-like brown thing attached to it, which amazed me. I had never seen this kind of fungi because only the white mushrooms were the ones I was familiar with. In fact, I did not think this one was a fungi; I just thought it was some abnormality in the bark when it was cut.
Brown to purplish-brown color is how I can describe this fungi. To know more about it, I searched the web to identify if this is a fungi, but Google scanner couldn’t identify it directly nor provide information. So I had to scroll down all types of fungi and afterward made an assumption that this is an Ascomycete fungus, since the description “hard, dry texture, brown color lumps, and seen on dead barks/woods” accurately describes the one I encountered. They look weird to me, to be honest, but their shape interests me. They were also scattered on the bark in pairs or groups, and I don’t know what it means. Do you have any idea? Let’s discuss in the comment section.
Moving on to the upper part of the bark, I saw this white tiny fungi. It looked like they were feasting on this weary and dead bark, trying to get rid of it in this world. I had to squint my eyes while examining the bark hoping I could find another kind of fungi, but there were only two of them.
I confirmed with my mother if the nearby bush was where she got it, and she confirmed it. I headed to the spot, searched for some trunks of dead bark, and found some of them.
I caught this one with strips of grasses and a bark. It was alone and no other baby fungi could be seen around it when I scanned the bark. It was more visible than the previous ones and didn’t demand me to squint my eyes. It must be a good wood-decayer as it grows flat against the bark like a small shelf.
This one confused me, which was attached to another laid bark, and I thought it was not a fungi but a flower because of its form like a Calla Lily. It didn’t have that umbrella structure in the head like a mushroom; rather, a flower form with a hole in the center. It was cream and light brown in color. There were two of them.
I think this one is a bracket fungus or a polypore, with its tiny pores and woody, shelf- or bracket-shaped form. I often see this in the woods while gathering some wood, and this time I learned it feasts on dead bark also since I usually see it on living trees. It was attached to a small detached part of a bark.
In the end of my fungi search, these tiny fungi reminded me that the world is big, and yet so much of it is shaped by little things we don’t often notice. They work quietly in the background, some undiscovered, helping the ecosystem stay balanced in ways we don't seem to always think about.