Copious rain and warm weather conspire to cause certain organisms in the arboretum to bestir themselves.
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| Countless students, faculty, and staff have walked past this post oak (Quercus stellata) on their way to and from the Student Union Building. It's an old, mature, on-site native oak, very much established before the construction of the Student Union Building. |
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| Today, we notice something special. Something orange! |
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| Something unusual and... infundibuliform. That's Latin for "funnel-shaped." |
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| These mushrooms grow from the roots of the oak tree, feeding on lignin and dead material. Is the presence of mushrooms a good or bad sign for the health of the old oak? We have lost nearly all of our giant post oaks; this is one of the few remaining individuals. |
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| The following photos aptly shows a few defining characteristics: a funnel-shaped cap, orange color, and clustering. |
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| From this angle, we see a bare stalk, true gills, and gill tissue that extends down onto the stalk. |
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| We're as confident as we can be that this is in the genus Omphalotus, probably the Southern Jack-O-Lantern (Omphalotus subilludens) given our area. |
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| This mushroom is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it glows green in the dark. Second, it's definitely poisonous. Don't eat it; you will deeply regret the experience. |
For additional excellent photos of mushrooms in the same genus, check out the Texas Mushroom Blog by Dr. Alexey Sergeev, professor of mathematics at TAMU.
