Image of the Day: The Fungus Among Us

By Bruce G. Marcot, Ecology Picture of the Week:

Adorning this log on the floor of a rainforest in northern Queensland, Australia, are these brilliant orange brackets.  This are the fruiting bodies of the aptly named "orange bracket," a wood-decaying fungus.  

As with other polypore fungi, the fruiting bodies of orange bracket consist of several types of hyphae which bind together tightly and produce a long-persisting bracket.   

In Australia, the desert Aborigines apparently have used Pycnoporus fungi to cure sores of the mouth and lips.  Indeed, the fungus has been found to contain antibiotics.  The species also has been used to decolorize olive oil mill wastewaters.  

It's always amazing how versatile and useful are the living elements of rainforests, including plants and plant allies.  (And strictly speaking, fungi, including mushrooms, are not plants per se). 

--Bruce G. Marcot

Image and text © Bruce G. Marcot, Ph.D. Research Wildlife Ecologist,
who produces the Ecology Picture of the Week website.