Not Nice to Disrespect Mother Nature
Mother Nature (MN): So, you went into the forest again today?
Investigator (I): Yes.
MN: Where did you go?
I: Same area, but a different seasonal stream and wetlands, within a quarter mile of the last site.
MN: What did you find?
I: Same story; sewage sludge dumping in a seasonal stream bed and the adjacent wetlands.
MN: What about the fungi you've been following – did you find any?
I: Oh, yes! I found the same few fungi that seem to tolerate toxic sewage sludge exposure, and which are the first ones to recolonize toxic sludge deposits as time passes.
MN: Which ones?
I: Three or four Mycena spp., including one we're culturing in the lab, plus Hypholoma fasiculare, and a close relative, as well as the Cup Fungi we have been seeing of late.
MN: That's it? Same story twelve months on? Is there a recurring pattern here?
I: Yeah, and sometimes the same few resilient survivors and toxin-tolerant species are found together, such as the Mycena spp and the Cup Fungi observed today in the same rain-washed sludge lumps and piles – amazing.
MN: Anything new?
I: Maybe another Mycena spp. emerging from the sludge in the stream bed. No other life forms seem to grow in this stuff, other than a moss and a couple of small plantlets. Maybe we're on to something.
MN: I better get busy!
Mycena spp. emerging from a sewage sludge pile with a single moss species.
Mycena cinerella, our constant sewage sludge degrader (Cinerella means, ashen).
Mycena spp., emerging anew from 11-month-old sewage sludge in a well-sludged stream bed.
Same species fully opened next to the moss, with a companion mite.
Hypholoma fasiculare emerging from the deep sludge covered forest floor.
Another Basidiomycete nearby.
Mycena spp and sludge-tolerant moss emerging from the sewage sludge.
Mycena spp. emerging from the sludge, along with some Cup Fungi.
The Cup Fungi with moss and a plantlet emerging from forest-disposed sewage sludge after 11 months of weathering.
The hairy Cup Fungi, up close and personal.
Another sludge tolerant Mycena spp. nearby.
That other sludge tolerant Mycena spp., in situ; hardly anything grows in this toxic, sludge-strewn wasteland.
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