Scarlet Bracket Mushrooms
The appropriately named “Scarlet Bracket” Pycnoporus coccineus (garden fungi) is one of the most common and colourful brackets that can be found even in dry weather growing on sticks and wood. Orange scarlet in colour, these fan shaped, firm bracket mushrooms attach themselves along the straight edge to wood. Their size is very variable. Juveniles are a lovely scarlet colour; the underside is a deeper colour and consists of fine pores. As this fungus ages, the bracket gets larger. The surface colour also tends to fade with age and exposure to strong sunlight – in fact some old specimens are bleached to white, but usually the pores retain some colour.
The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 23rd of October is “mushrooms”. On one of my walks a few months ago when the weather had begun to change from winter to warmer spring, I chanced across these Scarlet Bracket mushrooms attached to the dead branch of an old prunus tree which had been heavily pruned. I was only photographing the prunus blooms and then I noticed this colourful survivor clinging to a branch. I was so taken with the colour in contrast to the pink of the blossom, the grey of the wood and azure sky that I decided to take a photograph of it. Now I’m glad I did, as I feel that it is perfect for this week’s theme. I do hope that you like my choice, and that it makes you smile.
Scarlet Bracket Mushrooms
The appropriately named “Scarlet Bracket” Pycnoporus coccineus (garden fungi) is one of the most common and colourful brackets that can be found even in dry weather growing on sticks and wood. Orange scarlet in colour, these fan shaped, firm bracket mushrooms attach themselves along the straight edge to wood. Their size is very variable. Juveniles are a lovely scarlet colour; the underside is a deeper colour and consists of fine pores. As this fungus ages, the bracket gets larger. The surface colour also tends to fade with age and exposure to strong sunlight – in fact some old specimens are bleached to white, but usually the pores retain some colour.
The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 23rd of October is “mushrooms”. On one of my walks a few months ago when the weather had begun to change from winter to warmer spring, I chanced across these Scarlet Bracket mushrooms attached to the dead branch of an old prunus tree which had been heavily pruned. I was only photographing the prunus blooms and then I noticed this colourful survivor clinging to a branch. I was so taken with the colour in contrast to the pink of the blossom, the grey of the wood and azure sky that I decided to take a photograph of it. Now I’m glad I did, as I feel that it is perfect for this week’s theme. I do hope that you like my choice, and that it makes you smile.