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| Fungi. Once September comes, the temperature moderates and the ground becomes moist from the sporadic rainfall, fungi appear above ground. Fungi are an unusual organism. Most are composed of Hyphae which are long microscopic strands. Hyphae group together to form Mycelium, usually below ground or in a rotten tree on which they feed. They are therefore mostly invisible and only present themselves when the time comes to produce spores. What is seen above ground is similar to a flower head. The spores are similar to seeds, mostly miniscule and are dispersed to germinate and produce more Hyphae. |
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| Fungi can be very specialised
in their requirements, some will only colonise the dead wood
of a certain tree, others the fallen leaf matter of a
particular tree. Others are parasitic on a specific host. Many fungi form a mycorrhizal relationship with their host, this relationship is often crucial to the development of both partners. It is thought that there are between one and two million species of fungi with only about 5% of these catalogued, so identification of some is difficult and specialised, often only after microscopic analysis. |
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| Corfu has a number of colourful
and striking fungi, which in autumn provides a pleasant and
interesting subject worth photographing.
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| Download PDF version of this website with more photographs etc. in the downloads section. | |
