Weird Fall Fungus

At some point during our month of rain from August through late September i decided i just wasn't going to get a break in the weather before winter arrived. It just kept raining, and getting colder, until it was in the 30's, and still raining. So i headed out into the cold rain for some macro photography before the snows arrived.

The crazy amount of moisture we'd absorbed seemed to be creating a paradise not only for mushrooms but for rarer fungi, some of which i don't remember ever seeing at all until this year. Peak mushroom season had already passed but on some newly discovered trails in the woods where i had been walking the dogs i found an area in the that was completely overtaken by a weird fairyland of fungi.

This stuff was completely taking over everything in one area of the forest.

I am not an expert macro photographer but it's fun from time to time and still fresh enough to be a good learning experience each round out. This time was particularly challenging because it was raining and foggy, and extremely humid. If i touched any tree a downpour of moisture would roll off all the leaves onto my head and gear. The ground was as soft as a mattress so even shifting my weight could move the tripod off focus. I guess what i'm saying is good macro photographers deserve some credit!

I mentioned in the last post that we don't get red trees but the ground turns red in many places, with golden trees above.

Some leaves and mushrooms for scale in comparison to the weird green tentacles.

A few miles away in another part of the forest there were these fleshy fingers growing out of the ground. I had never seen them before either but they were entirely absent in the other area.

It seemed like everywhere i went this fall i was late to the party. All the tendrils with the "open cup" appear to have already "bloomed". How they do that, whether they explode or "flower" i have no idea. I started to see some of them with that pus looking substance around the tops. I don't know if that is the pre-bloom phase or still something left over after it happens.