Day of the fungus

The official demise of the rainy season in south Florida was announced by the National Weather Service earlier this week. Since then, Fern Forest (in Broward County, which, last time I checked, was still in south Florida) has seen more than two inches of rain, with more forecast today and tomorrow. Seems you can’t trust any government agency these days…

Perhaps they’ll argue that, since we’re so close to Halloween, we should expect to see some things getting resurrected. (Heaven knows there have been some odd sightings recently, including dinosaurs, in our neighborhood!) Speaking of resurrections, Polypodium polypodioides, the resurrection fern, is putting on its typical rainy season display:

As most of you know, rain also encourages an almost spasmodic growth of fungi. These little detritivores seem to go particularly hog wild after the humidity drops, then rebounds. Here’s a little gallery of the fungi I found, without hardly even trying, today:

I don’t know if it’s associated with the rain, but I found a vine that I don’t recognize as well. When I showed it to one of the park naturalists, it puzzled him as well. He’s going to take a look at it, and see if he can’t let me know what it is. Any guesses?

[UPDATE: turns out the vine is Old Word Climbing Fern, Lygodium microphyllum. I guess no matter how many times I see it (and I’ve seen it in spades at the refuge, at Jonathan Dickinson State Park), I never expect it. Now that I’ve seen it up close, I should be able to recognize it again.]

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