365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Guttation
Day 361: "Why is that plant/fungus sweating?" Particularly while hiking in the early morning hours, you may have noticed someting resembling dew on the margins of leaves, at the tips of blades of grass or sometimes on flower petals even though dew is not otherwise in evidence. In plants, this occurs when soil moisture is high and the plant's uptake of water exceeds its rate of traspiration due to its stomata ("breathing pores") being closed at night. Root pressure forces the excess out through specialized sructures called hydathodes. The process is less fully understood as it applies to fungi, but some theorize that it is the mushroom's way of protecting itself against rot, expelling excess moisture from its internal tissues. The photo above shows guttation droplets on a crust fungus.
Labels:
crust fungus,
guttation,
T Woods
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