neverspent | Fungi and lichens

It's been raining a lot lately -- rural roads closed, covered with water, lowlands flooded, that sort of thing. I can't complain, because who knows when the rain will stop (and stop, and stop, and stay stopped some more...) Walking in the woods today, I found some beautiful and interesting fungi growing on a chunk of rotten oak. They were shaped like goblets, with a fringe around the rims, and they were actually filling with rain. I wasn't surprised to learn later that a common name is "black cup fungus." The Latin name, Urnula craterium, seems a little redundant, but it's very descriptive. My favorite, though, is the delicious nickname "devil's urn."

In other fungus (okay, half-fungus) news, there's also this "moss" in certain places in the woods. I discovered it when I started exploring a lot as a child. There are certain places where it grows, and only in those places. As a tactile experience, I found it very attractive: when it's wet, it's very spongy and springy, almost like a loofah of soft rubber. (That's a little misleading as a comparison; I didn't hear the word "loofah" until years after I first discovered the moss.) When it's dry, it's brittle and it will crumble between your fingers. I always thought I'd like to gather it and make a bed in the forest, but I was afraid it wouldn't grow back if I took it away.

As it turns out, this was reindeer moss. It's a lichen -- which I should have known, had I thought about it, because it's really not like moss at all. And reindeer do like to eat it, in places where reindeer live. Apparently it's high in carbs and vitamin A and if you pulverize it, it makes a decent food thickener. Good stuff! Around here, there are no reindeer, but local human foragers collect it to sell to florists, and it may be endangered.