One of my favourite parts of #Hoppers is the beautiful sliver birch (𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘭𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘢) forest surrounding the glade.

Aside from the chaos and funny moments, of course! 🦎🦫🪵🐻

📸 The Walt Disney Company

𝙋𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙖𝙩𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙢: new zombie fungus that infects trapdoor spiders, covering them in a “fluffy” white coat of mycelium. Spores literally penetrate their exoskeleton 👀😳

Named top 10 species by Kew, and I agree!
tinyurl.com/4rfkbuuc

#fungifriends

📸 Joao Paulo Machado De Araujo

🌿 For #WorldWildlifeDay, I’m digging into my 𝗖𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 card deck from Kew Gardens @rbgkew.bsky.social.

I’ve always used ginger for digestion, but it can also:
🤢 prevent nausea
✈️ alleviate travel sickness
📉 possibly reduce cholesterol levels!

#MedicinalAromaticPlants

A toadstool mushroom doll sitting among mini crochet mushrooms in various colours, all sitting in a crochet brown basket.

Say hi to Chestnut 🍄 The start to my #noodoll family 🧸💕 Credits to @bigbisc.bsky.social for the crochet mushrooms and basket 🥹❤️

#fungifriends

𝐧𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐬: carnivorous; exposed gills; clubbed-shaped rhinophores

𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬 (𝐴𝑝𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑖𝑑𝑎): herbivorous; feeds on seaweed; less colourful

𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬 (clade Gymnosomata): foot developed into wing-like flaps; mostly transparent

𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐬: feed on algae; sequesters chloroplast for photosynthesis

Sea slugs are cute, beautiful and enchanting ✨🐌 But their name is just a colloquial umbrella term for many different ‘slug-like’ sea creatures. Let’s break it down once and for all! (Expand thread for typed version.)

#seaslugs #nudibranchs #sacoglossans #seahares #seaangels #marineanimals

Taming the Production of Bioluminescent Wood Using the White Rot Fungus Desarmillaria Tabescens Here, this work describes an efficient method to induce bioluminescence in non-living balsa wood by treating it with the living fungus Desarmillaria tabescens. The optimized growth conditions maximiz...

Original paper: Schwarze, F. W. M. R., et al. (2024). Taming the Production of Bioluminescent Wood Using the White Rot Fungus Desarmillaria Tabescens. Advanced Science. doi: doi.org/10.1002/advs....

5 x 4 rows of small balsa wood (Ochroma pyramidale) cubes co-cultivated with ringless honey mushroom (Desarmillaria tabescens) for three months. Top two rows of wood were impregnated with malt, bottom two without. All cubes are placed in small dishes/containers and are glowing green, illuminating the letters on the inner side of the containers (A-J). Photo credit: Schwarze, F. W. M. R., et al. (2024). Taming the Production of Bioluminescent Wood Using the White Rot Fungus Desarmillaria Tabescens. Advanced Science. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202403215.

Bioluminescent #fungi + dead wood = sustainable light source?

Scientists co-cultivated ringless honey mushrooms (Desarmillaria tabescens) and decaying wood to create a glowing biohybrid. This works because the fungus produces luciferin, a light-emitting compound, after breaking down lignin! 📄🔗⬇️

That looks about right, especially considering its cosmopolitan distribution. Thanks!!

A bunch of small brown mushrooms surrounding the base of a tree trunk.

Saw these on the side of the road earlier this year. What species might they be?

#fungifriends #fungi #mushroom

I’m allergic to cuteness 🥹

The #bluenature series will now be on break but will likely come back next month! I have ideas for different themes, so stay tuned :)

Will it affect the effectiveness of the drugs?

Close-up of a North Island kōkako (Callaeas wilsoni), showing the bird’s side profile including the head, neck and upper body. The bird has a vivid blue wattle patch under its shiny, short black beak. It has a black mask (stripe of black feathers running from one eye to the other), with the rest of the body dark-grey in colour.

Day 7 of #bluenature, the North Island kōkako (Callaeas wilsoni).

This bird gave the blue pinkgill (see Day 4) its Māori name, werewere-kōkako, because of its blue wattle (loose skin hanging from the neck). It is otherwise black/grey and sometimes called the “blue-wattled crow”.

📷 Matt Binns

Psilocybe cubensis, more commonly known as the “Magic Mushroom”. Source: Mushroom Observer | @dial8

Mushrooms of the Psilocybe genus is rich in #psilocybin, a well-known psychedelic compound.

Once ingested, psilocybin is metabolised to psilocin, which activates serotonin receptors in the brain (5-HT2A). But the effects vary greatly depending on the person and the context!

#fungifriends 🍄‍🟫

Microscope image of Cylindrospermum, a filamentous genus of cyanobacteria. Multiple blue-green bacteria fill up the image, some overlapping. Each bacterium is a thread-like strand of cells that did not separate after cell division, some longer than others.

Day 6 of #bluenature, cyanobacteria 🦠

A phylum with 6000+ species, their colour comes from pigments like phycocyanin (blue) and chlorophyll (green). They’re the first organisms known to produce O2, contributing to the Great Oxygenation Event and the oxygen-rich atmosphere today!

📷 Willem van Aken

Two extra facts because they’re just too cool! 1️⃣ Their blue side is also thought to protect them from UV light. 2️⃣ They feed on siphonophores (relatives of hydra and jellyfish) but store their prey’s stings (nematocysts) for its own defence against predators 🤯

The underside of a blue sea dragon (Glaucus atlanticus) floating in water. There are two prominent dark blue streaks running down its length, from its head to its tail. It has six appendages, three on each side of its body, each branching out into rayed and finger-like cerata (horn-shaped structures of nudibranches).

Day 5 of #bluenature, the blue dragon 🌊🐉

This mythlike creature (Glaucus atlanticus) has a blue underbelly and a silver-grey back. But they swim upside-down, so the blue side faces up. This is an example of countershading, making them harder to spot by predators above and below!

📷 Sylke Rohrlach

Yeah! I think it is, or at least was, being studied to see if it can be used as a natural blue food dye.

That looks adorable and amazing at the same time!! Thank you for sharing!

New Zealand's blue mushroom the world is obsessed with New Zealand's blue mushroom or werewere-kōkako or Entoloma hochstetteri has become massively trendy to find in the wild.

Unfortunately we don’t know! I found one source that says someone ate it and was “fine”, but it’s purely anecdotal.
youngadventuress.com/2024/03/new-...

We actually don’t know! But a lot of species from the same genus (Entoloma) are poisonous

A single blue pinkgill mushroom (skyblue mushroom, Entoloma hochstetteri) on a forest floor covered with moss. The entire fruiting body is bright sky-blue. The photo was taken at an angle to show the blue gills under the fungi cap.

Calling #fungifriends for day 4 of #bluenature, the blue pinkgill!

The skyblue mushroom (Entoloma hochstetteri) is the first of the series so far to be blue due to pigmentation by azulene. It’s also the only mushroom to be featured on money - New Zealand’s $50 note!

📷 Mary Smiley (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Close-up of nine blue forget-me-not flowers in a bundle. Each flower has five small petals with a yellow and white centre.

Day 3 of #bluenature, forget-me-nots!

There are ~60 species of Myosotis, a name that comes from Greek for “mouse’s ear”. Most are blue, but some are pink! 🌸 They’re also called scorpion grasses for the way they arrange in a spiral, like the curve of a scorpion tail 🦂

📷 hedera.baltica (Flickr)

I just made up the challenge on random - feel free to use the hashtag and start your own!! :)

Side view of a blue lumpfish placed on a plastic container.

Day 2 of #bluenature, the adorable lumpfish (Cylcopterus lumpus)! 🐟

The only species of its genus, lumpfish are useful cleaner fish used in salmon fisheries to get rid of parasitic copepods. Only juveniles appear blue due to biofluorescence — adults and babies look green!

📷 Reidun Marie Bjelland

Close-up for a blue Morpho butterfly against a stony grey background. Taken in Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. The butterfly’s body is dark blue, the wing span double its body length. Wings are mostly iridescent and shiny blue but with a black outer margin lined with small white specks.

Day 1 of #bluenature, the icon of #bluesky 🦋

Morpho is a genus of butterflies found mostly in South/Central America and Mexico. Their blue colour comes not from pigmentation, but iridescence caused by the structure of their microscopic scales!

📷 credit: TexasEagle (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Should I start a #bluenature challenge where I post something blue from nature every day? 🦋🏞️

Screenshot of the iPhone weather app, showing a Severe Hugh Temperatures Warning.

Interesting severe weather warning.

Bright blue sky with just one or two clouds. The top of a row of houses and some trees are visible.

Hello #bluesky, here’s a photo of a rare blue sky in Manchester ☀️