The Pier is Growing Hair!

  Several years ago, I found what I thought was a big tuft of black hair tucked way up under an azalea bush.  My heart sank as it was exactly the same color and texture of that of our sweet cat, Ms. Nycto.  I fretted that my poor baby had met her demise by some evil doer.  You will never know the relief I felt when Son investigated and assured me that it was not Ms. Nycto at all but rather a type of fungus.  It seems that Phycomyces Nitens grows on animal feces and does indeed look like fur.  It is easy to confuse the two when in the dark undergrowth of an azalea bush.

  Now I find there is another fungus, Phycomyces Blakesleeanus, that loves to grow on poop.  In fact, there are a whole bunch of poop-loving fungi out there!  Son, always on the lookout for interesting photography subjects for me, recently called me to the pier.  "There is a fluffy down here."  I was not sure what a fluffy was so I grabbed the camera and headed that way.  Sure enough, there was a fluffy.  In fact, there were several fluffies.  I knew that the otters have been leaving "evidence" on our pier but had not idea that it would sprout a full toupee!  This fuzz was not black like the previous stuff we had found but was rather a glistening white.  Each strand was topped with a small spore sac just waiting to pop open and reproduce!  

  I have to admit that I spent far too much time photographing otter scat with and without its hairy toupee.  Son and I had quite the conversation about the stuff which proved that mother/son bonding time can be important and that sons never really outgrow such things as talking about poop.  With the previous finding of black fuzz, he and I pondered over this "cure" for baldness...that topic came up again...of course.