Tarz In The Jungle

Day 264: Perhaps this isn't the most artful set of photos I've ever posted. It's not meant to be. It's meant to demonstrate what it takes to find the rare and unusual, and to show what it means to be an observer. You've probably already noticed the red circle in the lower photo. I'm going to ask you to ignore it for a second and attempt to look at the upper photo with an objective eye. Even knowing where the red circle lies, can you spot the tiny cup fungus in the upper photo? Be honest. That's Tarzetta cupularis, in situ, a single specimen, the only specimen I found in roughly ten acres. The story doesn't end there, by any means. I did not have my GPS with me on the first trip, nor did I realize that Tarz was anything special. Once I learned that it has only been reported from one other location in western Washington, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I had to re-find it.

Having a reasonably eidetic memory for landscape features has served me well over the years. It's why I don't get lost. Even when I try to take a different returning route, I invariably drift back onto my original line, guided by some unconscious memory of sticks, rocks, patches of moss, slope of the land or other features which have registered in the depths of my brain. That said, when I found myself standing again at the location where I was sure I had seen Tarz, it took me several minutes to find it. Why? Because I was pointedly looking FOR a small creamy cup fungus instead of allowing it to suggest itself to me as something out of the ordinary. You've experienced this phenomenon on a larger scale when you've mislaid your car keys. You've eye-scoured the counter where you normally leave them, and they're not there. They're just NOT THERE! Ten minutes later, you walk back into the room and they're laying on the counter in plain sight. Once I stopped looking for my solitary Tarz (I was distracted by a different fungus), it caught my attention almost immediately: a 10 mm spot of a different shade of cream than that of the wood, dry grass, bird's-nest fungi, leaves and other cream-coloured forest debris. Nevertheless, I took a GPS reading and made note of several macroscopic indicators so that I could find it more easily. Although I've made several return trips, no others have erupted.