Saw a cedar tree today that had orange things hanging like fruit all over it. Imagine a small, dead, orange octopus hanging tentacles down.About 3" long and wide. I have seen a zillion cedars, but nothing like this.Any ideas?
Ain’t Nature Amazing?
– Last Updated: May-07-07 1:19 AM EST –
Think of all the parasitic species out there that required two different species of host to complete their life cycle. Then think about all the species that live in two different habitats as they go through their life stages. Then think about how these things might have come about and why, or at least, what the apparent advantages might be, and it just boggles the mind. It's a mighty complex world out there!
On a similar note, years ago I accompanied my dad to his boyhood home stomping grounds in Upstate New York. He called all the pines out there "pitch pines" because the sap was continually oozing out of those trees. Those trees were plain old white pines, just like the white pines we have here in Wisconsin. The difference? All the white pines we saw in that part of New York were infected with white-pine blister rust, who's alternate host is the currant. My dad and his buddies never knew all their pines were diseased - they thought it was normal for that species to have sap dripping all over the place. By the way, if you value your white pines, the way to control the disease is to elimiate all the currants within some prescribed distance (I can't remember how far) of your trees.
wow
I was sort of relieved.
The tree is next to a Superfund site and I thought I was seeing some serious mutation or aliens.
Apple cedar rust.
– Last Updated: May-07-07 11:00 AM EST –
A basidiomycetes species (club fungi). I wrote a term paper on the stuff for a field botany class I took in Taos, NM. Fascinating life cycle - 5 spore stages, I believe.
That’s why my major was Zoology.
Welll…
Little known fact:
New genetic sequencing data shows that fungi are more cloesly related to animals than they are to plants.
/the more you know!
Well ,chloropyll Kreb’s cycle, I always
heard there was fungus amongus.