Wednesday 25 March 2009

Fungi at Liffey

We were tourists in Tasmania so we visited a popular tourist spot - Liffey Falls south of Deloraine.

The state is also experiencing the long dry so I wasn't expecting to see much water over the falls but in fact they were looking very beautiful and must be a wonderful sight in a wet winter. The tree ferns line the track down to the falls but the mosses and lichens were looking very parched.

It was a pleasant surprise find a few small fungi. I don't know what the first two are but I think the white one is sporangia of a slime mould (it looks like Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa in Fuhrer's book) and the orange one a Jelly Fungus Tremella sp. When I put the Jelly Fungus pictures on my computer I saw that it was covered in little insects - as usual I didn't notice that at the time. Maybe I need new glasses.


2 comments:

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Boobook,
Wonderful weird, sparely haired creature underneath the Tremella.
I cannot count its legs. I wondered if it was a mite of some kind.
The first pink balls are one stage of a Slime Mould, I believe. The balls rupture, I think and the slime mould then enters its motile stage. Sorry I cannot lay my hands on a reference just now.
I think Fuhrer has an image amongst his slime mould section.
Cheers
Denis

Duncan said...

Very nice Boobook, we'll need some rain here pronto or it will be another fungi non event like last autumn.