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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Ruffled

I'm not a fan of ruffles, unless it's these kinds. The first one is a liverwort. Liverworts are a biological oddity, in more ways than one! First of all, they are only one cell thick. Yes, each of those flabby "leaves" is like a bundle of twigs, with tall cells side by side. The "leaf" is called a thallus. It's more like a sperm or egg, because it only has half the genetic material of a liverwort. At some point little stalks will appear with a capsule on the top which has the full number of chromosomes.

liverwort

Next, we have orange ruffles. I don't know exactly what fungus this is- probably a polypore. I'll just stop rather than spouting misinformation.

orange polypore

Finally, I do know what this one is. It's violet-toothed polypore, most recently named Trichaptum biforme. It's really a polypore, but looks like a tooth fungus- hence the "biforme." It starts out bright purple, but quickly fades to this deeper purple and then brown to white.

violet-toothed polypore

Can't see the teeth? Let me help you.

violet-toothed polypore

See Treasures at Nordhouse for a different orange polypore
See Violet-toothed Polypore for a bright young specimen
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9 comments:

Reena said...

Love fungi! Really love the shot of the orange ruffles.

john bain said...

Are they edible? Crikey! What a coincidence. The word verification spells dedly!

Ann said...

And here all along I though Ruffles had ridges not teeth.(well that's what the chip commercial told me any way)

spinninglovelydays said...

Never loved ruffles (esp on dresses) as a kid, but they're growing on me now and the kind on fungi is definitely fascinating :)

moirai said...

Ah haha! I'm not a fan of ruffles too. =P But these ruffles are nice. =)

Ferd said...

Weird, interesting, colorful and BEAUTIFUL! :D

Secondary Roads said...

Very interesting story about the wort. You are teaching me something new nearly every day. Thanks!

Sharkbytes said...

reena- they are very fancy, but I wish I knew what kind they are.

John- the violet one- no, since I can't ID the other, no clue

Ann- you know better than to believe a commercial!

Ivy- yeah, me neither. Funny how they are acceptable some places and not others, but that's how my brain works.

moirai- you are in the right place for ruffles in the forest.

Ferd- the world is full of the weird and wonderful

Chuck- I knew the liverwort fact, but I do keep trying to teach myself something new all the time too!

RNSANE said...

All this is new stuff for me, Joan. I don't spend any time in the woods but I love learning a little something from you.