Polypores in Autumn: the simple beauty

I really enjoy the different communities here on Hive, but on days like today I get a little torn on all the options for posting. This post could easily fit in both my Fungi Lovers community, as well as in Amazing Nature! Since it's Friday, I am going to theme it and post it in Fungi Lovers, in honor of the simple beauty of the polypores found inside the colors of Autumn leaves...and of course #fungifriday!!!

This time of year, there is a lot of color to be found in the woods ~ yellows, golds, hues of orange, and every shade of red imaginable. We are a little past the "peak" of the color arrays,but there is still plenty of color to be found all around these beautiful Great Smoky Mountains of Appalachia.

colorful leaves litter the forest floor as I step gingerly through the trees

I took a quick walk with my camera to see what would catch my eye. Mind you, I only walked a few short paths through sacred space in our pagan community, and let spirit speak as to what might become a subject for the lens.

Near the creek, I found two old logs not very far apart just bursting with polypore growth!I think they are both the same variety, with just a little age difference. It's pretty amazing how long some types of fungus can grow. While many of the prized species only last a few days, some will grow for weeks, months, or even years.

This particular burst of fungus still has some color on the edges, almost as if it were dressed for the season!
As you can see in the photo below, other types of fungus have been working diligently on decomposing this old log, and these polypores are just the latest to joint the efforts!

Walking a little further, I find another crop of this same polypore at an old stack of firewood that's near our creekside firepit at "Tal's beach", a nice little area of flat along the creek bank where folks have gathered and ceremonies have happened, and our brother Taliesin is remembered and honored fondly.

As you can see above, there has been a lot of work going on at the end of this log! While the edges of the fungus don't have the deeper orange color of the first find, you can see that the gill structure (below) is extremely similar and there is still certainly color in some of those ends.

This second photo of the underside of the polypores really caught my eye as well. The younger, tighter mushroom has a gill structure that reminds me of a coral pattern. It's like a scalloped shell of coral design, earth edition!

Thanks for stopping by my brief fungi/nature/autumn beauty post! I took all these photos myself, and I am really enjoying learning more and more about how to use my camera!

Please have a great weekend, and remember to