FungiFriday - This is my branch and I stick to it

Every mushroom has its favourite place to grow. It's own little works where they feel good. Some will prefer to grow near the pine trees, other among grasses. After we know what each type prefer it is easier to find them. This knowledge is used by people that pick all those edible mushrooms.
I remember we used to go to one specific pine forest to pick the boletus (basically the only type I am confident to pick).





Why do they only grow in those specific spots? Well, there is force called Mycorrhiza (damn, the biology classes payed of).

A mycorrhiza is a mutual symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant.
In a mycorrhizal association, the fungus colonizes the host plant's root tissues. The association is sometimes mutualistic. In particular species or in particular circumstances, mycorrhizae may have a parasitic association with host plants.

_source


Why do they do it? To make it very simple (you can read more in the link above) they need to feed, so they use the plants roots or tissues to get the necessary carbohydrates. But in return they provide minerals so the plants can benefit too. That's why very often you will find specific mushrooms near, or on specific plant. They just found a way to benefit from each others company the most and provide what the other one needs.





Now after all that intro we are back to our little mushroom. I found one of those some years ago growling on a broken and slowly decomposing branch of a cork tree.

A coupe of weeks ago I was walking between cork trees again and surprise surprise. There they are again!

Yep - they like cork bark. And it is the only place I even found this type. I can't say that the broken branch benefits from it, unless helping to decompose it faster is considered a benefit, but the mushrooms definitely like this type of trees.

Those are two mushrooms that you see here. One on each side of a short piece of cork bark.

You can no idea how hard it is to maneuver one of those and shooting with another when you have this heavy brick Sigma lens attacked to your lens. They are not meant to be operated with one hand!

Peekaboo :)

How to join #FungiFriday:

• when Friday comes (UTC time) post your own, original photo/drawing/art/food/anything-at-all of any type of fungi (yes, I will check and report stolen images or text!)
• add #FungiFriday tag (it doesn't have to be your first tag)
• Include "My contribution to #FungiFriday by @ewkaw" anywhere in your post.

Bonus:
Among all the correct entries I will pick the best, most interesting, most creative posts. Those will be included in the challenge Summary Post published during the weekend.
100% of the Summary Post payout will be split between the featured users.
To participate in this part, the post has to be published from the FungiFriday Community.

Happy FungiFriday!

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_{Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos, graphics and text are my own.}