Inspired by the marvelous posts of fellow blogger Allen of N.H. Garden Solutions, I decided to keep my eyes open for mushrooms and other such growths when I made my forays into the woods last weekend. Allen always seems to discover a veritable cornucopia of vegetation, mushrooms, lichens, and slime molds, but my “catch” was much more modest (and I can’t even really identify the items I saw).
The first photo depicts what I think is a somewhat weathered mushroom that was growing on a tree mostly surrounded by green vines with very sharp thorns. I really like the texture of the surface of the mushroom and its coloration.
The second photo shows some kind of mushroom, possibly a kind of turkey tail mushroom. I like the concentric multi-color pattern, which reminds me of the growth rings of a tree.
In many ways these mushrooms are as beautiful and as colorful as the flowers that will be coming up in a few short months—I will have to keep my eyes even more wide open when I am outdoors now.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Beautiful. For me, mushrooms, like frogs, are the hidden pulse of the earth…
Thanks. My eyes are being gradually opened to see things that have always been around me, like these mushrooms. The fact that they tend to be in areas of reduced light, though, makes them a bit tricky to photograph. (And I love frogs too!)
You will be in for many surprises. Enjoyed.
Beautiful array of colours.
Thanks for the plug Mike. There really is a lot of color and beauty out there but it takes a little effort to find it at this time of year. The two mushrooms are bracket fungi, but I’m not sure which ones. As they dry out some bracket fungi change color, and then when it rains and they plump up they change color once again. I’m intrigued by that thorny vine-I wonder what it is?
The green thorny vine is everywhere in the area surrounding one part of the marsh. It sort of separates the woods from the marshy field. Thank you for helping me to inspire me to cast my net a bit wider in searching for interesting things to photograph.
The second mushroom looks like a seashell to me.
The vine looks like it could be greenbrier, which is in the genus Smilax. The species Smilax bona-nox is common in central Texas:
Thanks, Steve, for the help with identification. You probably know this already, but my friend and mentor Cindy Dyer was thrilled to see you recently in Austin.
Yes, we had a good outing in nature for over an hour. I was sorry that the sky was gray, but there were still things to photograph.