Need Help Identifying Mushrooms

The mushroom below is growing on a tree in my backyard. I know very little about botany in general and mushrooms in particular, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

From Drought To Rainy

We had a very dry summer. But of late it has been quite rainy.

Gondwanan Plant Dispersal

This is pretty cool. Science Daily reports on a recent molecular dating study that looked at the evolutionary history of the plant family Proteaceae. From Science Daily:

Studies in Mutualism: The Senita Moth

Science News Daily has an interesting story about the mutualism between the senita moth and the senita cactus. At least that’s what the title of the piece proclaims. The article is actually about the struggle of one scientist to make sense of the phenomena.

That’s Just Mean!

National Geographic has a story about an orchid that has evolved to resemble a female wasp:

Native Seeds/SEARCH: Preserving Traditional Crops

This story is a little old. I meant to blog about it when I first heard of it, but got sidetracked. Native Seeds/SEARCH is a program designed to preserve the cultural heritage of native groups by saving and stockpilings seeds from their traditional crops:

Dinosaur Hearing, Ibex Horns and Pollination

Jennifer Ouellette at Cocktail Party Physics has an interesting take on the paper about dinosaur hearing – anything that can combine bats and dinosaurs is okay in my book!

Computer Scientists Studying Evolution

Science Daily reports on an interesting piece of research that explains the evolution of inflorescences. The lead author is a computer scientist (which I mention because IDists frequently invoke computer science to support their claims).

Plants and Insects Fifty Million Years Ago: One from the Transitions Archives

This is a companion piece to the previous post.
Studying the evolution of insects can be difficult because they don’t fossilize well. But there are ways to study insect evolution. All life affects it’s environment in one form or another. In some cases the affect can be large, in others small. Occassionally, these affects remain behind long after the organism that caused them has died. Animal footprints, such as those of two dinosaurs below (from Glen Rose trackway), are good examples.

A Cool Idea

Henry’s Webiocosm has a cool idea (which I am shamelessly pilfering)! Learn something new about a random organism.

I learned about: Cambarus (Glareocola) brachydactylus a plant that inhabits tributaries of the Cumberland River in Tennessee.

What did you learn about?