12/2/12

The end of autumn

I was in Berkeley yesterday for the 43rd Annual Fungus Fair at the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.

This was my favorite fungus, Clathrus ruber. The egg-like enclosure, lined with a gelatinous anti-freeze material, cracks open to reveal the rank, red brain.

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Deadly Amanita also emerge from an egg-like enclosure, called a "universal veil". I am told the universal veil is a characteristic of the amanitas. It remains underground and shrivels into a volva once the mushroom pops up.

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I loved these sulfurous yellow mushrooms, Hypholoma fasciculare. Bitter and poisonous, they are not for eating.

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There were several tables of specimens, all collected in the last day or two following recent heavy rains.

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Northern California is quite soaked, as three (four?) big storms have moved through one after the other in the last few days. I think this is the last of it today.

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You can barely see San Francisco through the weather.

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The Golden Gate Bridge is a thin horizontal in the distance.

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I thought I'd go home after lingering at the Fair for an hour or two, but decided to give the Botanical Garden a quick visit since I was there and my membership is current. I'm glad I did. It was a riot of color.

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It must have been lovely (erm, lovelier still) before the recent rains brought down the leaves.

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Somewhere near here the scent of Cercidyphyllum japonicum stopped me in my tracks, like toasted marshmallows or cotton candy this time of year, when the leaves senesce.

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Even the rose garden was full of interest

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Another one that stopped in my tracks: Myrtus communis. All chartreuse foliage and blue berries. Annie in Austin informs me this is a popular one in Austin, TX. Well, you don't see it much around here.

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I'd forgotten this was here, an art installation using glass tubes recovered by artists from the Solyndra debacle (National Review readers hate it). Step inside the dark room...

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Full of natural light carried in by glass.

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Different effects depending on where you stand.

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Here is a picture using the camera flash so you can see what you're looking at.

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