The beauty of this sunrise over the horizon of the African bushveld is only surpassed by the clouds that lace it. The much anticipated rainy season in the Lowveld regions of Africa is in full swing, and with that comes signs of new life in various shapes and forms. From the damp earth that lay restlessly underneath the canopies of Acasia and Mopani trees various fungi sprout from decaying trees as well as soil, and I managed to capture some of them on my morning walk to inspect the water well and natural dams.
Firstly let me say that I am by no means an expert on fungi and that I merely appreciate their beauty. But if I had to take a wild guess, I would say not food!
One of the first Fungi I came across was this lovely flakey mushroom (above), standing in solitude against a backdrop of freshly sprouted greenery. I invested a tiny bit of time to try and identify this beauty, but I fell short and settled on the idea that it is from the Amanita family. Without any certainty, I am leaning toward Amanita thiersii. But I could be very wrong, so please feel free to correct me if you know.
Gorgeous polypore shelf mushrooms (above) could also be seen sprouting from fallen trees that seem to lay forgotten on the bed of decaying leaves that envelop their base.
Although I have heard that many types of shelf mushrooms are edible and some even medicinal, I am not at a point in my life where that level of risk intrigues me, at least not given my lack of knowledge of these gorgeous mushrooms.
And then of course there was this fascinating specimen (above) that caught my attention. This pair of fungi, which I also imagine being in the Amanita family spectrum, stood adorned with amber droplets that glistened in the soothing sunlight that briefly greeted its skin through the overcast skies.
At first, I thought it was tree sap drizzled over the pair by an overhanging tree, but I could find no evidence of that, and after some searching on the internet, I learned that it was a curious phenomenon in the fungi world that is known as guttation.
"Some fungi are prone to exhibiting a curious phenomenon—they exude beads of moisture, called guttation. In several polypores, such as Fomitopsis pinicola, the liquid produced can look so much like tears that you'd swear the fungus was weeping. Or maybe sweating. Other species produce pigmented drops that can look like milk, or tar, or even blood." ~ source
But the Fungi were not the only thing brought back to life by the pleasures of greenery brought forth by the rains. I also came across the first Mopani worms (below) for the year.
Now unlike my uncertainty about the edibility of wild mushrooms, I am 100% certain that these worms can be eaten. In fact, they are considered a delicatessen for many people in Africa and provide a great source of protein to their consumers. But unless I am in a state of dire desperation, I will leave these off my menu.