March 24, 2019: Fungi Build Walls Too

More signs of spring are appearing around the lakes:  this week I saw the first gaggle of geese flying north in tight formation.  So when I saw a bunch of large birds out on the lake I thought it was geese.

14 Gobblers out for a morning walk

But closer inspection revealed they were turkeys!  I have never seen turkeys out walking around in the middle of a lake before.  They came across the cove and strutted right up the shore and into the woods, pecking at various tiny seeds along the way.

The army approaches

This one shows a small beard, some had ones much larger

I'm not sure why they came across the lake, but it's probably safer than than crossing the road.  There is a great video of a flock of turkeys crossing a road in Litchfield, NH, under the careful supervision of a member of the flock (the patriarch?).  It's worth watching if you haven't seen it (thanks PC!):  Turkey Traffic Cop



Last week I noted the spalting I found inside a recently blown over tree.

With the guidance of our town and county foresters I learned that spalting is caused by fungi, and with a little digging I found a US Forest Service publication, "Encyclopedia of Plant Pathology" [Maloy and Murray editors, 2001, John Wiley and Sons] with a nice succinct article on the process that creates it.  The entry titled "Zone Lines" was written by Kevin Smith of the Forest Service Northeastern Research Station, right here in Durham, NH.  It explains that these distinct lines are created at the boundary where two different genetically distinct fungi are growing;  the fungi within a single zone usually contain a single genetic individual, with a different genetic individual on the other side of the zone line.

Amazing clarity of these zone lines

The lines themselves contain dead parts of the fungi and high concentrations of wood resins and gums.  The article doesn't state this, but I'm guessing the fungi push these out ahead of the areas they are colonizing.

Now here's the interesting part:  the fungi use these lines for "self-isolation" by creating survival structures that "reduces competition from other potential colonizers".  The makeup of the zone lines prevent the neighboring individuals from crossing it.  It appears that building walls around our domain to keep others out has been built into our genetic material from the very beginning;  fungi were some of the earliest life forms on the planet.

This could be the map of some war-torn region of our planet

Spalted wood is pretty rare and hard to find, but is highly valued by woodworkers because when it's workable it makes interesting patterns in the products.

Spalted wood products.  Photo from "Woodworker's Journal"

I went back this week and cut a small piece of wood from the tree I found and will save it for our local wood artisan for when he returns this spring.  I don't know if it will be usable, but I figure that if anyone can make it work, it will be he who was able to create art out of 80 year old trees pulled from the bottom of the lake where they had been lying since the hurricane of 1938. (Click here to more read about that story.)

Hurricane Bowl crafted by Wayne B.

And here are more signs of spring:  the first snowdrops have pushed their way up beside the house.  But it's going to be a while before those geese find any open water - there is still 23" of ice on Lake Wicwas!

The first flowers to arrive:  Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis, remember "nives" from subnivian?)