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Lou Giroud | all galleries >> ONE YEAR Picture a DAY - 2004 - 2005 >> PAD SEPTEMBER 2004 > Rotten Wood - Sept. 26-04
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Rotten Wood - Sept. 26-04

The rainy season has started and the mushrooms will come out in larger amounts.

Here a picture of a piece of white rotten wood, eaten up by a mushroom that separates it from it's cellulose which makes it to turn into white dusty substance, a conditon required to transform wood into paper in the ancient times.

Today's paperindustry, for sure, do not wait for mushrooms to do this, they wash the wood-dust they made with a chemical called Mercapton to bleach it.

Other mushrooms do the oposite and eat up lignin components which leaves it turn red chip-like particles. We call that than a red rotten wood.

This picture is part of my Makro-Gallery http://www.pbase.com/lou_giroud/makrophotography


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Lou Giroud27-Sep-2004 11:19
Armillaria species is very common, the most comon and biggest parasite of our woods. They spread in net shape patterns and look like a black fishing nets under the soil. Armillaria spreads by this ryzomorphs structure over surfaces that can cover a complete wood or even a country size. Inside the wood they remain in a soft felty structure like the one seen here between the different wood layers. Now, to say that this one is an Armillaria is overdriven. Many musshrooms spread inside the wood like this. Pholiota, Piptoporus, Polyporus and Pleurotus are among those as well.
Guest 27-Sep-2004 10:24
Good Image!
Guest 27-Sep-2004 08:37
Interesting. I didn't know this was done to make paper before...did you know that the largest living organism is a ind of mushroom called Armillaria ostoyae? Researchers claim they had found a very large, very old colony of this fungus covering an area of 2500 acres in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon. Seehttp://www.newhouse.com/archive/story1b080700.html

There's also been found a colony in Switzerland, Engadine national Park, as well, but only covering about 50 acres. You know, the biggest are allways in US :)
Ole


Karen Leaf27-Sep-2004 01:27
Thanks for the info Lou. This is great.
Yvonne26-Sep-2004 13:26
A fascinating study beautifully captured & very interesting explanation.