Tags
Bracket Fungi, Dendrology, Educating, Felled Trees, Mushrooms, Mycology, Naturalist, nature, Wood Flowers, world of nature
Strolling through the yard I spied the old logs, stationary where they have lain for the last two years. Decomposing past the point of being useful for warmth they never made it to the fireplace which now I am happy for. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were other than beautiful.
I am not scientific but I do enjoy educating myself with further learning of my environment. What is this? It is pretty yes and reminds me of growing coral just on dry land but it took several searches to determine exactly what I was photographing. Was it a flower, lichen or other type of fungi? Turns out these leathery multicolored swirls growing on my would be firewood are mushrooms also called bracket fungi obtaining their nourishment from the wood of the fallen tree. If I were educated in the study of mushrooms I would be a Mycologist.
I called them wood flowers and if I were educated in the study of flowers I would be a Botanist; the study of wooded plants would make me a Dendrologist, and the applied study of wooded plants would place me as an Arboriculturalist.
Instead I like to consider myself an unofficial Naturalist in that I do study nature through my photography. I learn from it and acquire a higher appreciation for the world of nature around me.