~May 2011 Photo of the Month Winner~

[Sage]

The entries this May were superb and they all deserve prizes! You are all improving as photographers!

May 2011 Photo of the Month Winner

by havalotta

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1st runnerup Bulucanagria

2nd runnerup benj1

[havalotta]

Oh Wow...I would have never guessed.
The title took me completely by surprise being against so, so many great shots!
Thank you, and congrats to both Bulucanagrias for his beautiful pollen filled blossom and Benj1s pleated mushrooms.

[dapjwy]

Congratulations to all.

Great photos.

[jpdenk]

Nice shots! What kind of cactus flower is that? Looks like an Opuntia, but the green center doesn't look right for any of the Opuntias native in your neck of the woods, Bulucanagria. At least I've never heard of any. The ones found in the NE usually have a reddish center, from what I've seen.

Nice Split-tooth Gill mushrooms, Benj1! And I really like that Damselfly closeup too, Havalotta, really nicely composed!

Makes me realize that I haven't done much of any photography this year yet, and these make me want to get out in the field. I'd better get busy.

John

[bridget1964]

Wonderful photos, everyone! Congrats!!

[benj1]

Thank you, thank you.

Split-tooth gill, huh. Wonder how long I'll be able to remember that???? Once in a while you turn over a random piece of wood and there's a prize underneath.

[jpdenk]

Originally Posted by benj1

Thank you, thank you.

Split-tooth gill, huh. Wonder how long I'll be able to remember that???? Once in a while you turn over a random piece of wood and there's a prize underneath.

Well, Split Gill, I'm worse with common names than with the scientific ones. Schizophyllum commune if you want to get fancy.

By the way, that's one of the few macrofungi that can cause horrific problems in humans. There are instances where its grown in peoples lungs. At an IMA meeting several years ago, we had a lecturer who was a fungal pathologist who showed us photos of this mushroom growing in the sinus cavities of someone who had a cleft palate.

In another instance, it grew in someone's lung and actually ate its way out to the surface of her chest. She had other health problems though that suppressed her immune system, so that isn't typically what it can do.

But don't go sniffing it when you find it again, you don't want to inhale a bunch of its spores.

[havalotta]

Originally Posted by benj1

Thank you, thank you.

Split-tooth gill, huh. Wonder how long I'll be able to remember that???? Once in a while you turn over a random piece of wood and there's a prize underneath.

So it IS the underside of a fungus...Here I was thinking it was the topside of one that appeared like an underside.
It never even dawned on me it was flipped. It sounds like it's pretty wicked. Is that really true they can grow inside you like that? Sound horrible....

[benj1]

No, I didn't flip the mushroom. I turned over the piece of wood and what you see was attached to the bottom of it. It seems to grow "in reverse", and it doesn't seem like an effective way to disperse spores (which I will NOT experiment with).

[havalotta]

So it must attach by its cap?