More fungi and ‘shrooms are bursting onto the autumn scene to take advantage of some decaying stumps of dead trees that had to be removed. While they may seem like opportunists of decay, they actually benefit the food chain by releasing nutrients locked in the wood back into the environment. This befits living plants and other “creepy crawlers” as well as animals that feed upon them.
Without such organisms, woody material would pile up until buried under sediments as happened during the Carboniferous period more than 300 million years ago. That material fossilized into coal to be exploited eons later. Now, fungi and other creatures feed upon such debris and provide nourishment for an ever expanding chain of life.
#fungi #bracketfungus #carboniferousperiod #coal
Eskildoodle Photos and Feelings 