Polypores – beautiful decomposers
“Lumpy bracket” (trametes gibbosa) doesn’t seem like an adequate name for these lovely fungi. Robed in soft white velvet they stagger up the sides of this moss covered tree like strategic handholds for some agile woodland climber.
“And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune Then the piper will lead us to reason And a new day will dawn For those who stand long And the forests will echo with laughter.”
Led Zeppelin
Unfortunately for the tree, polypores signal the beginning of the end. Inside, the heartwood may already be in the process of rotting—the lumpy bracket is there to help. It drinks deeply of the decaying organic material, obtaining nourishment from the dead matter and returning it to the ecosystem to feed other living things. Nice.
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