By Madeleine Pashley
Its winter! The woodland landscape here at Coombes has surrendered to a mosaic of brown hues and silhouetted branches. Although, at this time of year, nature composes itself in a somewhat concealed and obscure demeanour, don’t let that fool you! There are weird and wild things to be discovered at Coombes Valley.
Coombes Valley woodland view from the Treetop view point
Talking of weird and wild... I have recently been stirred by a discovery that lies beneath the swells of the valley mist, beneath the unclad tree canopy and beneath the leaf litter...
I had discovered, sitting silently within the woodland carpet, a plethora of peculiar protrusions.
Upon closer inspection, involving the use of squinting and an open mouth, the oddities were wounds. Wounds that bled green sludge, pooling and dripping out of each yellow fleshy protrusion.
It was evident, that I indeed was witness to an aftermath. The aftermath of the Earthball!
Discovery of the peculiar protrusions
By Jarrod Sneyd
The aftermath- a clump of wounded Earthball fungi
Why the gory aftermath?
The Earthball is a fungi that lives the majority of its life beneath the leaf litter under the soil surface. Its main body is made up of a hair-like web system called “mycelium”. The Earthball mycelium runs between the trees in parts of our Coombes valley woodland, creating an underground network.
Every autumn, the underground network decides to break the earth’s surface and produce its own fruit, much like a fruit tree produces apples, pears or berries.
The Earthball’s fruit is made up of a globular fleshy casing which accommodates a powder of spores. Once mature, raindrops and animals disturb the fleshy globe causing the casing to split and disperse small clouds of spores, all in the name of reproduction!
The Earthball’s globular fruiting body (Before aftermath) November 2014
The aftermath- the wounded casing of the Earth ball- Jan 2015
Word to the wise; don’t be deceived by the seemingly lifeless winter landscape! Beneath the misty swells and the undressed trees of the Coombes valley woodland, there are weird and wild spectacles to be detected.
Come and discover what is lurking, the trick is to keep your wits about you and your eyes peeled...