Thursday 12 January 2012

Blue lichen?

Moving logs into my log shed I found a couple with a striking royal blue fungus. ID guides failed me but a Google search revealed an identical photo from a blog describing it as blue lichen. It's not a lichen, just a fungus called terana caerulea. More commonly it is called cobalt crust fungus or velvet blue spread. According to Wikipedia it was chosen as fungus of the year for 2009 by the German Mycological Society. It can be used in the creation of an antibiotic called cortalcerone. So now we know, thank you Wikipedia. It might not be rare but everyone who sees it says wow!

Terana caerulea - 'fungus of the year 2009'

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