The Urban Pantheist

The eastern subspecies of the Tree Octopus Octopus paxarbolis* turns out, under sober reflection, to be a fungus. Specifically, it is the gall of a fungus with an interesting two host life cycle. The gall overwinters as a woody knob on an eastern red cedar Juniperus virginiana** but when the warm spring rains come, out come the tentacles. The jelly protuberances release spores into the air, which can infect a number of plants in the rose family (including, for economically important reasons, apple treesMalus sp.***).

Once inside the second host, the cedar-apple rust Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae**** grows until it forms pustules on the leaves and fruit. Orange rust-like growths produce spores that then must infect a red cedar to continue the cycle. The fungus doesn't usually seriously harm it's hosts, but consumers don't like to buy hand fruit with pustules on them, I guess.



* "Eight-footed Pacific Tree-dweller"

** "Virginia juniper"

*** "Apple" Jesus do I have to do everything?

**** "Naked spore vessel on eastern red cedar"

News item: Cryptozoological mystery is an obligate urban animal.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0321_060321_tyco_fox.html?source=rss

Perry Sumner, a biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said it's likely a red fox with a rare genetic condition known as Sampson, an abnormality in which the animal lacks a layer of fur called guard hair. Without this thick outer coat for protection, the normally nocturnal fox would be forced to hunt during the day when it's warm and sleep under heated buildings at night. In recent years, Sumner said, other Sampson foxes have been spotted in urban areas around the state