There's a Fungus Among Us!

Here are a few pictures of some cool fungus I found on a hike in Valldemossa:

This wood rotter was found on a small Quercus ilex. It has a really cool poroid hymenophore. 

This spot had several of these puffballs...

Have to love Ascomycota!

I FOUND AN ORCHID!!!

I went to Valldemossa yesterday to get out of the city and do a little collecting for my lichens project. We went up a different trail than we usually do and I stumbled upon a pleasant surprise!I think I found either Ophrys dyris or Ophrys fusca. I think there is a better chance that it is O. fusca because, according to the Virtual Herbarium, it is very common and starts blooming in the winter and early spring. It is a very beautiful orchid but there are a lot of different species of Ophrys on the island that look somewhat similar. 

Check it out!

It kinda looks like it is imitating a fly don't you think?

Sporophytes

Some mosses starting to dry out and curl up their leaves to preserve water. 

I have no idea what these are but they look really cool close up. 

Look at all that Ramalina pusilla just covering the acebuche!

The town of Valldemossa, which appropriately means "Valley of the Mosses" in Catalan.  

There is a wide diversity of ferns but I unfortunately don't know much about ferns so I can't tell you what they are. 

Cladonia pyxidata looking quite squamulose. 

More Cladonia pyxidata. It is really common here. 

A cool shot of some kind of caterpillar on a wood rotting fungus with very cool lamellae. 

Three tall sporophytes

A moss on the verge of elevating it's sporophytes. Look at all those silvery awns!

A very small leafy liverwort that looked like a green film from far away. It was covering the soil of a cut cliff face. 

A close-up of the flowers of Erica multiflora.

A species of Parmelia.

Another species of Parmelia. 

Slimy little guy...

Peltigera membranacea looks so cool growing mixed in with the mosses. 

This stuff looks so awesome close up! Get me a microscope for my birthday por favor?!

Cladonia rangiformis mixed in with some mosses. 

Evernia prunastri

Another Parmelia species mixed in with what looks like some Frullania on a dead snag. 

Valldemossa

Hypericum balearicum is a species endemic to the Balearic Islands and is in the Guttiferae. I saw it all over the place on this hike but this one was the only one I saw flowering because they typically flower between March and July.  

The flower of Hypericum balearicum.

This is madroño (Arbutus unedo) and I saw two large, almost tree-like, specimens on this hike around Valldemossa. 

The fruit of the madroño. It was quite sweet but a little granular like a pear. 

Juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus) was quite common and very bushy. This one was the only male plant that I saw. 

Moss = musgo in Spanish. 

What a cute little Cladonia lichen!

Check out the apothecia on this bad boy!

Puffball or primordia?

Ephedra fragilis

Ephedra in its natural habitat. 

Tiny!

Tinier!

This was more than just mold, it was definitely some kind of dense fungus in a non-mushroom form, probably an Ascomycete.  It was growing on fallen leaves, dirt and rocks. 

Some very slimy Basidios.  

Russula?

Check out those lamellae!

This fruticose lichen has very spiky apothecia. 

Now is the time for mushrooms with all the rainfall we have been getting. 

Some decomposing mushrooms. 

Mushrooms pre-decomposition. 

Some puffball mushrooms. 

The water droplets on the spore mass inside the puffball look so cool!

Checking out an aeroid species with beautiful leaves.  

These white mushrooms were all over the place. 

Can't wait to see what flowers these beautiful leaves come up with. 

A tiny little wood-rotter. 

The dried up inflorescence of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare).