A Deeply Hideous Thing

 I was working from home on Wednesday, and was able to take advantage of this to have a quick afternoon wander along the river and to the park, which was still under a large amount of River Devon.

The eye-catching "thing" I found - and "thing" is the best word, was lurking on a tree stump in the lock gardens, where the cultivated cowslip is emerging, next to a clump of brightly coloured fungi.

And at first, this is what I thought this was. A horrendously awful fungus, looking like a pile of rotten mincemeat, squelched onto the wood like a pile of vomit.

I thought it must have been some sort of particularly ugly form of tremella type witches butter fungus. But researching at home has led me to believe that this was actually an agglomeration of fungus gnat larvae, which have a habit of forming nasty looking bundles that slomp around presumably looking for toadstools to eat.

Posting the picture on Instagram seemed to induce vomiting sensations among viewers, I hope you have stronger stomachs.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.02.21