Day 357: Unique to the Pacific Northwest, the Himalaya and for reasons obscure to science, Kansas, Ramaria araiospora is the most spectacular of all the Coral fungi. The holotype (the specimen from which the species was described botanically) was collected in 1967 from a location only a few miles from my home. I feel a little proprietary about this lovely fungus, and consequently get a little testy when someone asks, "Is it edible?" The answer is yes, but I'll sidestep the question whenever possible and might even respond with, "Why would you want to destroy something so beautiful?" I do not understand the human compulsion to taste everything. Surely that instinct should have been deemed unnecessary to our genome by the time Ugg and Ogg left their cave. By then, Homo sap had discovered its vulnerability to poisons and was having no particular difficulty surviving on Nature's provender, and some members of the species were even beginning to develop a sense of aesthetics, painting the walls of their shelters with images of animals and geometric designs. The feast Ramaria araiospora provides the eye is one which nourishes our need for beauty. Its caloric value is negligible when placed on the table. To me at least, the choice between its two merits is clear.
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