There were a couple of neat finds yesterday. This is the most showy.
It's hard to miss this bright spot in a woods that has turned brown and gray. This is Cinnabar, or Red-orange Polypore. Scientific name, Pycnoporus cinnabarinus. There are three other species in the genus, but they are tropical, so in the northern US, you are pretty safe to ID this one.
It will grow on most any rotting wood. In this case, it's on cherry.
If you know a little Greek, the name is pretty easy. Pycno= dense, The pores are very small. Porus= porous (duh). If you look at the underside of any (ok, almost any) polypore, there are pores, not gills, like many mushrooms have. Cinnabar= deep red or red-orange. This comes from the name of the ore of mercury which is this orange to brick-red color.
Want to see those dense pores? Look at the size relative to the fine knit of my gloves.
OK, that's the nature lesson for today. The current patience lesson at our house is that we have no water, and can't get the part for the pump until Monday. Sigh.
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I can find many of them inside the forest.
ReplyDeleteMushrooms...
Beautiful.
Cinnabar made me think of cinnamon.
ReplyDeleteI know what a pain it can be with no water. We used to have problems all the time when I was growing up. No fun
Love the info on this cool fungus. It is very pretty.
ReplyDeleteSorry about your water issue.:(
rainfield- you probably have some of the other Pycnoporus
ReplyDeleteAnn- we just laid low today. Hopefully I can get the part tomorrow
Jean- Some of them are pretty easy. Others, I never seem to know what they are