Crust fungus

|Kevyn Fowler|

In the depths of winter, the mushrooms we are used to seeing decorate the summer forest floor, sleep soundly under the frozen tundra. For mushroom enthusiasts, it seems like a bleak time of snow and ice, freezing rain, and silent forests. Yet there’s still so much going on in the fungal realm, small patches of life, often hidden under a small dead branch or listing tree.

These are the crust fungi, strange creatures of the forest, attached and growing as a crust on the surface of dead or dying trees. They come in many shapes and colors, sometimes lying flat and thin as paper, growing unseen under unremarkable branches, or raised and textured.

I’m just starting to learn the names of the more common crusts, and will always be finding new and strange forms that I’ll have to turn to the experts for help identifying. The curiosity and detective work is fun for me, and will be a lifelong journey of discovery and learning. Yet the main reason I follow the crust fungi in their quest to rid the forest of dead wood, is because I think they’re wicked cool, and are a fun and challenging photographic pursuit.

So if you’re feeling a little cooped up, yearning for a fungal reason to roam the beautiful Maine woods in the long winter season, take a stroll and watch for strange creatures clinging to the branches and trees. Get down low and look underneath, you might find a crust fungus in all their unique glory, quietly doing their thing while most of the rest of the fungal creatures yet slumber. The warming rains of spring should brighten the crust fungus quite a bit, so make sure to get into the woods after a rain to catch them full and colorful.

I’ll leave you with some photos of finds from early winter, some are probably not technically crust fungi, but are polypores, another class of fungi that are hardy and grow for years throughout all the seasons.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•