Fungi

Moss

Bryophyta

Range: The Entire World

Info: Mosses are small flowerless plants that typically grow in dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. There are approximately 12,000 species.

Fun Fact: Wherever they occur, mosses require liquid water for at least part of the year to complete fertilization. Many mosses can survive desiccation, sometimes for months, returning to life within a few hours of rehydration. Traditional uses of mosses included as insulation and for the ability to absorb liquids up to 20 times their weight.

Foliose lichen

Lichen

Range: Northern California and Oregon

Info: Foliose Lichen is one of a variety of lichens, which are complex organisms that arise from the symbiotic relationship between fungi and a photosynthetic partner, typically algae.

Trichaptum

Trichaptum trichomallum

Range: All over North America.

Info: Grow in overlapping clusters on hardwood logs and stumps; late spring, summer and fall. Prominent decomposer of dead wood.

Fun fact: Known to look like a Turkey tail.

Cramp Balls/King Alfred's Cake/Coal Fungus/Carbon Balls

Daldinia concentrica

Range: North America, South America and Europe.

Info: It lives on dead and decaying wood, especially on felled ash trees. The inedible fungus Daldinia concentrica is known by several common names, including King Alfred's cake, cramp balls, and coal fungus.

Fun Fact: According to legend, King Alfred once hid out in a countryside homestead during war, and was put in charge of removing baking from the oven when it was done. He fell asleep and the cakes burned. Daldinia concentrica is said to resemble a cake left to this fate.

Tumbling Puffball

Bovista pila

Range: North America.

Info: Grows on the ground and roadsides. The egg-shaped to spherical puffball of B. pila measures up to 3 inches in diameter. Its white outer skin flakes off in age to reveal a shiny, bronze-colored inner skin that encloses a spore sac.

Fun Fact: Young puffballs are edible while their internal tissue is still white and firm.