3:00 snapshot #1280 plus bonus cockatoo

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3:00 snapshot #1281 big asses plus bonus little asses

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100 More species #79: Green citrus mold

Green citrus mold Penicillium sp. possibly P. digitatum or P. italicum

The other day I came into the house and was hit with a powerful odor of citrus and garbage. I took out the trash and checked the compost but the smell persisted. Finally I found the bag of oranges that had "gone bad."

We think of rot as a passive, entropic process, something that just happens due to neglect. The truth is that living fungus organisms are putting themselves out there (literally) and working hard to cause rot. They put out invisible threads a single cell wide, and grow into their food source. They put out digestive enzymes and absorb the products that result. Eventually they produce spores--visible in this case as a grayish green coating--which drift into the air in the hope of landing on a suitable substrate to continue the cycle.

I put the spoiled oranges into our compost container, where the vigorous activity of many organisms turns our leftovers into fertile soil.

Another species of penicillium--one colonizing some bread--appeared in the 365 urban species project.

3:00 snapshots #1282, 1283 plus bonus arboreal goofball

That office window view, now with weird reflections and lily of the valley.
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Wisteria in heavy flower at the Kalahari Kingdom.