Mushrooms, Toadtools & Fungi

Bracket Fungi, Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

As I drove the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail in early August, I stopped repeatedly along this one lane winding road to capture the flora and fauna I saw along the ground and in the trees. Mushrooms, Toadstools and Fungi were thriving all along this route due to the especially rainy past few weeks. No doubt fuel for these species.

Large Mushroom, Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail winds its way around the mountainside. On this section of the tour, there is a major drop off on the left and on the right your car is literally hugging the side of the mountain. You can basically open your right side windows and take photos of the ground cover. These large Mushrooms were growing right up next to the mountainside in a clump.

Black Tooth Fungi, Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

This Black Tooth Fungi was growing around some moss along the road. It was so perfectly formed and had such a nice white ring around the edge. What a vivid black hue.

Toadstool, Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

Keep in mind the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a temperate rain forest, as is all of the Southern Appalachian Mountains of southwestern North Carolina and southeastern Tennessee. The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trails takes visitors through one of the wettest areas of the park. Evidence of the rain forest climate is especially evident in this area with moss covered rocks and boulders in and around the river itself. Conditions you won't find as plentiful in other areas of the Smokies. Perhaps this is why this area of the park was spared during the wildfires last year. A wonderful weekend is coming up with sunshine aplenty. Back soon. ENJOY!

Picasa 3.9 and Picnic Premium!

For those of you who were thinking of using Picnic Premium, but realize now that it will be closing in April, I have spent a little bit of time working in the Picasa software which now houses many of the features of Picnic Premium. Might I add there is no charge to get these new features either. So that saves me $24.95 annually. I also wanted to mention that I think I'm starting to enjoy the features they added to the basic Picasa software. In many ways they seem easier as you point and click. Here is an example of one of the features where I posterized a bracket fungi photo. I've also noticed some of the Picnic Premium features that they now have included on Picasa 3.9 are actually a little bit different than they were on Picnic. And possibly even better. So give Picasa 3.9 a look. I will continue to test some of the other features and try to post more as time goes by. Hope you had a great weekend. Looks like some of you folks got snow and while I had hoped to have some more snow here in Kentucky, I don't think it's going to happen soon. ENJOY!

Bent Twig Loop Part III, Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest!

We're STILL hiking along Bent Twig Loop . . .


We're still on the Bent Twig Loop at Bernheim taking an early winter hike. This image I captured blows my mind just a tad. It's bracket fungi completely covering this downed log and boy does it have style. Have you ever seen such a beautiful collage of fungi all in one spot. Not me. I hope you're enjoying this week whether you are off or working. New Year's is coming. Are you ready for another year? ENJOY!

Bracket Fungi

Typically "Bracket Fungi" grow on stricken trees. But in some cases, they grow on wounded trees, as it did with this one found along the forest drive at Bernheim. Bracket or Shelf Fungi belong to the "Polypore" family of mushrooms. I did not know fungi and mushrooms were related necessarily. Fungi are more of a parasite. I wouldn't consider mushrooms, however, to be parasitic. I stopped to take a few images of this fungi as its seldom you can get close enough to take a really good image of such a large fungi like this. I see why this fungi is called Shelf Fungi. Did you know you can actually eat Bracket Fungi? ENJOY!