Chlorociboria Aeruginascens

Day 343: In light of yesterday's post which was also about something suffixed with "chloro-," I should probably explain that it means green or greenish yellow, and although that doesn't accurately reflect the colour of Chlorociboria aeruginascens, it was (as they say), "Close enough for gov'mint work" as far as the taxonomists were concerned when they named this tiny fungus. My botany partner Joe posted a photo of it years ago, and when I said that I would "give my eye teeth to see it in real life," he collected a stick on which it was growing and delivered it to me some time later after the fungus had dried up and showed only as a faint blue discoloration. He described the conditions where it had been growing, and I did my best to provide them. That was in 2019. One winter passed with no sign of the fungus returning to life, but the following autumn, blue disks erupted on the underside of the stick where it was resting on the ground. I was careful to replace it exactly as before, and every year since then, the "Joe Stick" has reliably produced a crop of Chlorociboria after the first few soaking rains of the autumn season. I keep wondering when it will exhaust the supply of nutrients in its substrate, but for now, it's still going strong.