Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Season of the Decomposers

For my class unit on Ecosystems, we have been studying the role of decomposers.  At the Oregon Mycological Society's annual exhibition, I picked up an oyster and shitake mushroom kit for my classroom (one student said, "Mr. Loren, I think I can guess what oyster mushrooms taste like, but I think I'll get in trouble if I guess what shitake mushrooms taste like!")
Here are some prints we made, the first showing some fascinating white spores from the shitake on black paper.




Afoot on the Paradise Park Trail at Mt. Hood this past Sunday.  Spectacular fungi persevering above the snowline....


Somehow, this delicate knot of lichen expresses something about which the mushrooms remain quiet.....