Fungus, Lichens, and Such

 When the weather gets damp I search the yard for fungus and such to photograph.  I hit the jackpot! Sorry for the lengthy post, however... ALL these fascinating life forms are growing in one small spot!  

This is an old sawhorse that was sitting outside the rotting shed when I moved in.  You can see some areas of green, moss, so let's zoom in on that first.  Some identifications may be wrong! 

Lots going on here!  Let's zoom in some more.

Lovely Bird's Nest fungus, with a few "eggs" tossed out of the "nests."

Fairy Cap lichen just below the Bird's Nest fungus.

Redshank moss

I took this photo elsewhere in the garden to show the redshanks it's named for.

Little things you can't see well in the first photo.

What seem to be three different kinds of cup fungus!  There are a lot of kinds in Oregon, so I can't be sure what they are.

This may be Ascocoryne cylichnium, a kind of jellydisc fungus.

I don't have a guess on this.  I thought maybe glass cup, but it appears in early spring.   Keep in mind, these are tiny, that is a cedar needle in the lower left corner!

This might be Yellowing cup, Peziza succosa.

Fairy Inkcap (I think) and immature Bird's Nest fungus.

 That's the maybe Fairy Inkcap at the top, opened to its mature umbrella shape. 

The next morning I went out to check on these (mushrooms can change overnight!), and found a spider had been busy before the dew formed.  My phone camera didn't do justice to the shimmering dew drops.  

Some sort of Mycena. Mycena comes from Greek, meaning "fungus."  

Trichoderma fungus breaks down rotting wood.  It is also used a biocontrol agent to help protect wood from decay by inhibiting the growth of other wood-rotting fungus.  I'm not so sure how that works!  

This is some sort of dry rot fungus, but not the kind I've had under damp wood lumber or planter boxes.  That kind grows flat, this is upright. 

Squamulose lichen has small scales, called squamules, that often overlap. 

I have a lot of rotting wood around the yard.  I don't mind, except for the deck.  I have no idea how old it is, and it isn't built on pier blocks, there's wood to soil contact.  This is the life growing on the ends!  Redshank moss and Fairy Cap lichen.

I hope you enjoyed this trip to a rotting saw horse!