December 4, 2023 • 30 mins
Welcome home everybody, and welcome to The HomeSounds Show!
In this episode, Rob and I are looking for mushrooms, not only because of their incredible variety and fascinating history as possibly the first life forms on planet earth, but also because of the potential, made possible by bio-sonification, of hearing them. Following our previous experiments in this inspiring area of environmental listening, we wander the Great Wood at Felbrigg with a beginners hope of finding fungi that we can tune into.
If you'd like to keep listening visit homesounds.org where you can find all previous episodes of the HomeSounds show, as well as many more opportunities to actively listen and numerous ways to support, and get involved, with the HomeSounds project. Alternatively you look for the 'Riverlands' show on Poppyland Radio, which broadcasts live sounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the Silvergate Stream in Blickling every Wednesday evening at 10pm.
LINKS
https://hii-mag.com/article/the-next-chart-topper-how-bio-sonification-turns-fungi-and-plants-into-our-musical-collaborators
https://electricityforprogress.com/biodata-sonification/
https://www.media.mit.edu/galvactivator/faq.html
Felbrigg Hall
Homesounds
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
In this episode, Rob and I are looking for mushrooms, not only because of their incredible variety and fascinating history as possibly the first life forms on planet earth, but also because of the potential, made possible by bio-sonification, of hearing them. Following our previous experiments in this inspiring area of environmental listening, we wander the Great Wood at Felbrigg with a beginners hope of finding fungi that we can tune into.
If you'd like to keep listening visit homesounds.org where you can find all previous episodes of the HomeSounds show, as well as many more opportunities to actively listen and numerous ways to support, and get involved, with the HomeSounds project. Alternatively you look for the 'Riverlands' show on Poppyland Radio, which broadcasts live sounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the Silvergate Stream in Blickling every Wednesday evening at 10pm.
LINKS
https://hii-mag.com/article/the-next-chart-topper-how-bio-sonification-turns-fungi-and-plants-into-our-musical-collaborators
https://electricityforprogress.com/biodata-sonification/
https://www.media.mit.edu/galvactivator/faq.html
Felbrigg Hall
Homesounds
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:32):
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo the Home Sound Show. My name
is Martin and I'm a field recordistantteacher. I'm the creator of the Home
Sounds Project and your co host forthe show along with Rob. Hello everybody.
My name is Rob and I'm aneducator and naturalist. I work for
the Vacal Trust at Sheringham Park inNorfolk as part of their Children and Young
(00:54):
People Hub. The Home Sound Showinvites everyone to become active environmental listeners.
Yes. In this episode, Roband I are looking for mushrooms not only
because of their incredible variety and fascinatinghistory as possibly the first life forms on
planet Earth, but also because ofthe potential made possible by biosonification of hearing
(01:17):
them. Following our previous experiments inthis inspiring area of environmental listening, we
wander the Great Wood at Felbrigg withthe beginner's hope of finding fungi that we
can tune into. So we're atFabric Hall. It's late or last day
(01:37):
in It's Ober, day before Halloween. It's a bright day and we're going
mushroom hunting right sonically and physically todo some more experiments with the bias son
(01:59):
of the that we did in ourepisode from Felbrig Hall when we were Roady
bashing with the group from the MintProject. So we're going to stick some
more sensors contacts onto mushrooms and playaround a bit. But we're also collecting
(02:25):
specimens for another reason. So obviouslyit is autumn. This is the time
when you get the mushrooms fruiting,fungi fruiting, producing the fruiting bodies which
are them, you know, themushrooms and the toadstools that we think of
when we think about mushrooms really andthe woods here at Felbrig are a great
(02:52):
place to go and look because there'slots of things that we on the estate.
There's lots of things, lots ofhabitat really good for for fungi,
fungi, fungi fungi, whether youwant to say it, I think anywhere
fungi, fungi, fungi, they'reall correct. There's a whole show in
(03:14):
that isn't So you've got obviously thetrees, big area of assiduous woodland,
lots of old trees which are good. There's some coniferous woodland as well.
There's some grassland, open spaces thathasn't been plowed or fertilized, so there's
(03:37):
lots of good places to find mushrooms. Dead wood beneath trees where they symbotically
live with trees growing on the roots, providing things for the for the tree
as well as for themselves. Andalso the open grassen here as well,
(03:59):
where you've another set another sweeter speciesthat will be growing on soil, so
lots of good scope for finding them. I don't think it's been a classic
year for mushrooms this year. Iwent out yesterday to another site and was
looking and doesn't appear to be alot of the larger, the larger mushrooms
(04:29):
this year. The fruiting body,the big fruiting bodies, not not huge
numbers. I went to a sitewhere normally see lots of fly garricks,
which is the classic red capped mushroomwith white dots on. I've had a
few, but nowhere near the numbersthat I normally look to find there at
this time of year. At thistime of year, and it's been a
(04:51):
you know, a lot of thesethings can be weather related. I guess
we had a very dry September andnow we've had a lot of rain,
but it's been pretty torrential in shortbursts. And adding to that, perhaps
why does that affect well, whoknows really, in order to fruit,
(05:13):
very dry conditions are poor for fruitin that you need the mushroom needs moisture
to fill itselves up as it asit grows, So you do need moisture,
which is why awesome is a greattime because you've got the you've got
a lot of wet, but you'vealso not got the cold temperatures because the
freezing temperatures then then starts to curtailthe season. So awesome is the time
(05:38):
of the year. But it's beendry and then we've had brain but it's
it's been very periodic and also potentiallythe effect of last year's drought maybe something
that's coming into play, and thingsvary from year to year. This is
the first we've just been walking fromthe car part up towards the Victory v
and this is the first mushroom we'vespotted. It's not a mushroom in fact,
(06:04):
yeah, this growth on this treestump. So we've got a we've
got a moss covered tree stump wherea tree has been cut down and growing
on it. We've got this hardwoody small strands which are black with white
(06:24):
tips. And this is a veryvery common fungus that you find on this
situation. So it's like uh asI mentioned, it's growing on dead wood.
So this tree stump is providing thenutrition for the mushroom. And like
with all fungi, the majority ofthe organism is actually in threads high feet
(06:48):
your microscopic which are in the inthe substrate that it's feeding on. So
the in the wood here and probablydown into the roots the dead roots of
this tree as well, dominantly inthe tree. Well they're specific, so
some species will feed on on soiland some species will feed on on on
wood. And so this is thisis on this dead wood here and this
(07:12):
species these lots of little strand andyou will find it many times. I
think is called candle snuff. Andyou can kind of see why if you
imagine it's the they're thin black strandswith a white tip, and if you
snuff out a candle between your fingerand thumb, you're kind of left with
(07:33):
that white sort ashy remains on thetip. They remind me from it of
obo reeds. So for the instrumentalistsaround you. They're kind of tapered to
the tip, which if you ifyou have any of you only know that
those woodwind instruments, they kind ofnarrow at the bottom and they taper out
(07:54):
to a wider sort of fan.Yeah, at the top. They're quite
irregular, about five mil wide atthe base probably two three centimeters long maximum
irregular shape. They're also kind ofsome of them are sort more antler shaped.
There is I think the American namefor these is carbon antler. So
(08:16):
they do have a you know,reminiscent of a sort of antler with the
branching slightly kind of a broader antlerthan many of the species that we see,
more of a kind of fallow deertype thing with some of these.
And the white ah the white tipis the spores and that actually you can
(08:39):
feel that on your fingers, andthat that's how this species spreads its spores.
But different species spread spies in differentways. Play game you re put
(10:45):
simply. Biosonification is the business ofusing technology to translate electrical activity in living
organisms into sounds audible to the humanear. In our case, we're taking
sensors developed for measuring electrical active inhumans and sticking these onto mushrooms. We
then use computer software to translate thiselectrical activity into a well established music technology
(11:09):
language called MIDI. This allows usto create and control sounds using instruments that
speak this language, in our casesynthesizes, but also a million other pieces
of digital and analog music technology.In humans. These sensors are designed to
(11:31):
measure skin conductance or electrodermal response.This is when the skin momentarily becomes a
conductor of electricity when either external orinternal physiological stimuli occur. In humans,
this spin used both to assess physicalhealth by heart rate monitors, for example,
and as a tool in understanding emotions, such as with lie detectors.
(11:56):
If humans engage in a hard mentaltask, such as solving a complex maths
problem, the electrodermal response will increase. This is also true in states of
heightened emotion, in response to astartling event, or in many other circumstances.
Perhaps an easy way to understand itis to say that when our bodies
(12:16):
are working hard, either physically,mentally, or emotionally, they are likely
to warm up, increasing perspiration,which allows electricity to flow more freely across
the surface of the skin. Thesensors then measure this change in conductivity.
It is these principles that are appliedin biosonification, where the work of the
(12:39):
living organism leads to an increase inelectrical activity on its surface. This can
most easily be seen and heard byplacing sensors on the leaves of a plant
and then moving it in and outof sunlight. When the light hits the
leaves, the process of photosynthesis takesplace and the plant starts to work,
(13:00):
recreasing the ability of electricity to flowacross the surface of the leaves. This
increase also takes place when you waterthe plant, spray the leaves, or
excitingly, when you touch it.The question is understanding which stimuli influenced this
change and what does this change mean. The ability to measure this response in
(13:22):
both human and non human organisms iswhat leads to the most popular question raised
by biosonification. Do other living thingsfeel like we do? Biosonification has been
employed by artists in many different kindsfor years. It has become increasingly popular
as our relationship with nature comes intosuch sharp focus through our understanding of climate
(13:46):
change and a general sense of lackof connection with the world around us.
Being able to hear the working rhythmsof living organisms raises a myriad of questions.
The often abstract and mysteries experience ofsound, in this case, through
biosonification, offers an opportunity for contemplationand reflection, as well as a channel
(14:09):
through which to increase our understanding orreimagine our existing knowledge and experience of the
natural world. So our first,our first mushroom. You wouldn't think of
it as a mushroom the fungus ofthe of the candle stuff, but this
(14:31):
is a typical mushroom shape. Soit's got a stem technically known as a
stipe, and a cap of yourtypical typical mushroom toadstool, and underneath the
cap there are the lines of gills, so lines coming out from the from
(14:52):
the from where the stem meets thecap to the edge of the cap.
It's sent me to the crosses andsomething like that. Yeah, so it's
yeah, So the fruit and bodieshere, they're very very in size,
don't they. But I guess,yeah, the maximum the one we're looking
at now, Yeah, Yeah,it's sort of a dark tan kinlor on
the top going to white at theedges. Yeah, and this is this
(15:16):
would actually be these are quite oldspecimens. I have collected a couple to
look at more closely, but wemight well find some fresher ones. It's
it's called sulfur tuft. Sulfur tuftnamed after its color. So actually this
is not a great example as they'restarting to kind of go a bit kind
(15:37):
of muddy yellow ee, but youcan see the yellow certainly, and the
yellow sulfur is what they're named after. The other id features are that it's
gotten you can see it's covering myhands, the black, very dark spores
(15:58):
and so unlike the candle stuff wherethe spores are produced at the tips,
with this mushroom, and typically ofmushroom shaped mushrooms, the spores are produced
on the gills and they drop fromthe gills. And in this case you
can see the spores are dark almostblack, presumably called gills just because of
(16:21):
their look, yes, of anyfunction in any way, so there,
I mean, their function is tohave a high surface area so that each
gill is producing you know, millionsof spores which which then drop from the
gill out into the out of theair. Really and then they're microscopic,
(16:42):
tiny, tiny, you can thinkof them like seeds really to produce that
then blow around, settle somewhere andpotentially start to form a new new growth.
And the and as mentioned the thethreads of the where the mushrooms getting
(17:03):
its nutrition from is all inside thisstump and probably going out into the roots
of the stump as well. Isthere a term for describing like a big
collection of mushroom there is, sothis form of growth form can be described
as trooping, trooping, trooping,So you've got a large troop of these
(17:23):
sulfur tuffs. And this also hasanother interesting feature that needs to be dark
to see it, because these mushroomsare one of a range that biofluoresce,
so will reflect ultra violet light indifferent colors. So some mushrooms are bioluminescent
(17:49):
will produce their own light. It'sa I've never I can't put my hand
on my heart as I've ever seenthat, even though a common and some
common species do do it. Butit's a very faint light. It's it's
one that you can record using photography, but but difficult to see with the
naked eye. In the UK atleast bluminescence. But this is I think
(18:15):
I'm correcting something. We might haveto need to chet this. But biofluorescence
where it's reflecting reflecting lights. Ifyou shine a UV light at this,
it glows very brightly shines back.So that's an interesting and the reason for
it, I'm not sure is ahwhy something's biofluoresce. It's not completely understood.
(18:41):
So so are we going to tryand record some of this biosonify?
I guess that's it can do thatif you wants behind us, Why don't
we give that a go cha?I'm okay. So what color are the
(22:19):
wax caps? Okay, so theycome in a variety of colors, So
there are yellows. What oh,here's something straight away? Talk that up.
Some white ones here, possibly snowywax caps. I'll pick one to
have a look at. Quite small. They vary in size from you know,
(22:42):
this is on the small side toquite a bit bigger than this with
different species. But they're often verybrightly colored. But they're the sort of
typical mushroom shape with the stem orstipe and the cap. Quite the gills
on the underside of white well spacedand as with their name, we felt
(23:06):
the butter cap earlier was very greasy. The caps, as you might expect,
are quite sort of waxy, andthere's white yellows, lots of reds,
greens. The parrot wax cap isgreen. There's a black one blackening
wax cap, and there's a pinkone ballerina wax cap, which is a
(23:27):
rare species that has been found here, so we'll keep it open for that.
It is quite quite an unusual one. But yeah, so it's this
is the habitat for it, undisturbedsoil on grassland, So quite a rare
habitat really, but we've got plentyof it here. So, uh,
(23:57):
how does the habitat mean that theappearance of the fruit, the mushroom fruit
is different? What? What whatis it about feeding? The changes there?
Yeah, you just don't. Theyjust don't. They simply won't grow
on improved soil. So as soonas you've been plowed or nitrogen added,
(24:18):
it's you know, the wax capwill disappear. So, yes, so
as soon as as soon as asI say, as soon as the soil
is more of a heel, assoon as the soil plowed up or nutrients
added suddenly there's oh, here wego. This is yeah, so this
(24:44):
is our parrot wax cap. It'slike a green tinge green and yellow,
so quite like obviously the as thename suggests. This one's got quite a
slimy cap. But it's a reallybright green, isn't it so bright green?
The stipe starting at the cap reallybright green, going to quite a
bright yellow round the base of thestipe, and then yellow and green around
(25:08):
the around the cap. You cansee the This is called a stri eight
cap where you can see the usthe lines of the gill where the gills
are through the top of the cap. Yeah, and you can. And
it's in amongst some others now becausethey're starting to go over it's difficult to
so I think these are probably allparrot wax caps here, but yeah,
(25:32):
and this will be quite even.The cap of this will be quite a
bright green at times as well.So, yeah, parrot wax cap cap
(28:51):
you've been listening to. If you'dlike to keep listening, visit homesounds dot
org, where you can find allprevious episodes of the Homesound Show, as
well as many more opportunities to activelylisten and numerous ways to support and get
involved with the Home Sounds project.Alternatively, look for the Riverland Show on
(29:15):
poppy Land Radio, which broadcasts livesounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the silver
Gate Stream in Blickling every Wednesday eveningat ten p m. Links relating to
this episode can be found in thedescription We'll be back again next month.
Welcome home, everybody.
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo the Home Sound Show. My name
is Martin and I'm a field recordistantteacher. I'm the creator of the Home
Sounds Project and your co host forthe show along with Rob. Hello everybody.
My name is Rob and I'm aneducator and naturalist. I work for
the Vacal Trust at Sheringham Park inNorfolk as part of their Children and Young
(00:54):
People Hub. The Home Sound Showinvites everyone to become active environmental listeners.
Yes. In this episode, Roband I are looking for mushrooms not only
because of their incredible variety and fascinatinghistory as possibly the first life forms on
planet Earth, but also because ofthe potential made possible by biosonification of hearing
(01:17):
them. Following our previous experiments inthis inspiring area of environmental listening, we
wander the Great Wood at Felbrigg withthe beginner's hope of finding fungi that we
can tune into. So we're atFabric Hall. It's late or last day
(01:37):
in It's Ober, day before Halloween. It's a bright day and we're going
mushroom hunting right sonically and physically todo some more experiments with the bias son
(01:59):
of the that we did in ourepisode from Felbrig Hall when we were Roady
bashing with the group from the MintProject. So we're going to stick some
more sensors contacts onto mushrooms and playaround a bit. But we're also collecting
(02:25):
specimens for another reason. So obviouslyit is autumn. This is the time
when you get the mushrooms fruiting,fungi fruiting, producing the fruiting bodies which
are them, you know, themushrooms and the toadstools that we think of
when we think about mushrooms really andthe woods here at Felbrig are a great
(02:52):
place to go and look because there'slots of things that we on the estate.
There's lots of things, lots ofhabitat really good for for fungi,
fungi, fungi fungi, whether youwant to say it, I think anywhere
fungi, fungi, fungi, they'reall correct. There's a whole show in
(03:14):
that isn't So you've got obviously thetrees, big area of assiduous woodland,
lots of old trees which are good. There's some coniferous woodland as well.
There's some grassland, open spaces thathasn't been plowed or fertilized, so there's
(03:37):
lots of good places to find mushrooms. Dead wood beneath trees where they symbotically
live with trees growing on the roots, providing things for the for the tree
as well as for themselves. Andalso the open grassen here as well,
(03:59):
where you've another set another sweeter speciesthat will be growing on soil, so
lots of good scope for finding them. I don't think it's been a classic
year for mushrooms this year. Iwent out yesterday to another site and was
looking and doesn't appear to be alot of the larger, the larger mushrooms
(04:29):
this year. The fruiting body,the big fruiting bodies, not not huge
numbers. I went to a sitewhere normally see lots of fly garricks,
which is the classic red capped mushroomwith white dots on. I've had a
few, but nowhere near the numbersthat I normally look to find there at
this time of year. At thistime of year, and it's been a
(04:51):
you know, a lot of thesethings can be weather related. I guess
we had a very dry September andnow we've had a lot of rain,
but it's been pretty torrential in shortbursts. And adding to that, perhaps
why does that affect well, whoknows really, in order to fruit,
(05:13):
very dry conditions are poor for fruitin that you need the mushroom needs moisture
to fill itselves up as it asit grows, So you do need moisture,
which is why awesome is a greattime because you've got the you've got
a lot of wet, but you'vealso not got the cold temperatures because the
freezing temperatures then then starts to curtailthe season. So awesome is the time
(05:38):
of the year. But it's beendry and then we've had brain but it's
it's been very periodic and also potentiallythe effect of last year's drought maybe something
that's coming into play, and thingsvary from year to year. This is
the first we've just been walking fromthe car part up towards the Victory v
and this is the first mushroom we'vespotted. It's not a mushroom in fact,
(06:04):
yeah, this growth on this treestump. So we've got a we've
got a moss covered tree stump wherea tree has been cut down and growing
on it. We've got this hardwoody small strands which are black with white
(06:24):
tips. And this is a veryvery common fungus that you find on this
situation. So it's like uh asI mentioned, it's growing on dead wood.
So this tree stump is providing thenutrition for the mushroom. And like
with all fungi, the majority ofthe organism is actually in threads high feet
(06:48):
your microscopic which are in the inthe substrate that it's feeding on. So
the in the wood here and probablydown into the roots the dead roots of
this tree as well, dominantly inthe tree. Well they're specific, so
some species will feed on on soiland some species will feed on on on
wood. And so this is thisis on this dead wood here and this
(07:12):
species these lots of little strand andyou will find it many times. I
think is called candle snuff. Andyou can kind of see why if you
imagine it's the they're thin black strandswith a white tip, and if you
snuff out a candle between your fingerand thumb, you're kind of left with
(07:33):
that white sort ashy remains on thetip. They remind me from it of
obo reeds. So for the instrumentalistsaround you. They're kind of tapered to
the tip, which if you ifyou have any of you only know that
those woodwind instruments, they kind ofnarrow at the bottom and they taper out
(07:54):
to a wider sort of fan.Yeah, at the top. They're quite
irregular, about five mil wide atthe base probably two three centimeters long maximum
irregular shape. They're also kind ofsome of them are sort more antler shaped.
There is I think the American namefor these is carbon antler. So
(08:16):
they do have a you know,reminiscent of a sort of antler with the
branching slightly kind of a broader antlerthan many of the species that we see,
more of a kind of fallow deertype thing with some of these.
And the white ah the white tipis the spores and that actually you can
(08:39):
feel that on your fingers, andthat that's how this species spreads its spores.
But different species spread spies in differentways. Play game you re put
(10:45):
simply. Biosonification is the business ofusing technology to translate electrical activity in living
organisms into sounds audible to the humanear. In our case, we're taking
sensors developed for measuring electrical active inhumans and sticking these onto mushrooms. We
then use computer software to translate thiselectrical activity into a well established music technology
(11:09):
language called MIDI. This allows usto create and control sounds using instruments that
speak this language, in our casesynthesizes, but also a million other pieces
of digital and analog music technology.In humans. These sensors are designed to
(11:31):
measure skin conductance or electrodermal response.This is when the skin momentarily becomes a
conductor of electricity when either external orinternal physiological stimuli occur. In humans,
this spin used both to assess physicalhealth by heart rate monitors, for example,
and as a tool in understanding emotions, such as with lie detectors.
(11:56):
If humans engage in a hard mentaltask, such as solving a complex maths
problem, the electrodermal response will increase. This is also true in states of
heightened emotion, in response to astartling event, or in many other circumstances.
Perhaps an easy way to understand itis to say that when our bodies
(12:16):
are working hard, either physically,mentally, or emotionally, they are likely
to warm up, increasing perspiration,which allows electricity to flow more freely across
the surface of the skin. Thesensors then measure this change in conductivity.
It is these principles that are appliedin biosonification, where the work of the
(12:39):
living organism leads to an increase inelectrical activity on its surface. This can
most easily be seen and heard byplacing sensors on the leaves of a plant
and then moving it in and outof sunlight. When the light hits the
leaves, the process of photosynthesis takesplace and the plant starts to work,
(13:00):
recreasing the ability of electricity to flowacross the surface of the leaves. This
increase also takes place when you waterthe plant, spray the leaves, or
excitingly, when you touch it.The question is understanding which stimuli influenced this
change and what does this change mean. The ability to measure this response in
(13:22):
both human and non human organisms iswhat leads to the most popular question raised
by biosonification. Do other living thingsfeel like we do? Biosonification has been
employed by artists in many different kindsfor years. It has become increasingly popular
as our relationship with nature comes intosuch sharp focus through our understanding of climate
(13:46):
change and a general sense of lackof connection with the world around us.
Being able to hear the working rhythmsof living organisms raises a myriad of questions.
The often abstract and mysteries experience ofsound, in this case, through
biosonification, offers an opportunity for contemplationand reflection, as well as a channel
(14:09):
through which to increase our understanding orreimagine our existing knowledge and experience of the
natural world. So our first,our first mushroom. You wouldn't think of
it as a mushroom the fungus ofthe of the candle stuff, but this
(14:31):
is a typical mushroom shape. Soit's got a stem technically known as a
stipe, and a cap of yourtypical typical mushroom toadstool, and underneath the
cap there are the lines of gills, so lines coming out from the from
(14:52):
the from where the stem meets thecap to the edge of the cap.
It's sent me to the crosses andsomething like that. Yeah, so it's
yeah, So the fruit and bodieshere, they're very very in size,
don't they. But I guess,yeah, the maximum the one we're looking
at now, Yeah, Yeah,it's sort of a dark tan kinlor on
the top going to white at theedges. Yeah, and this is this
(15:16):
would actually be these are quite oldspecimens. I have collected a couple to
look at more closely, but wemight well find some fresher ones. It's
it's called sulfur tuft. Sulfur tuftnamed after its color. So actually this
is not a great example as they'restarting to kind of go a bit kind
(15:37):
of muddy yellow ee, but youcan see the yellow certainly, and the
yellow sulfur is what they're named after. The other id features are that it's
gotten you can see it's covering myhands, the black, very dark spores
(15:58):
and so unlike the candle stuff wherethe spores are produced at the tips,
with this mushroom, and typically ofmushroom shaped mushrooms, the spores are produced
on the gills and they drop fromthe gills. And in this case you
can see the spores are dark almostblack, presumably called gills just because of
(16:21):
their look, yes, of anyfunction in any way, so there,
I mean, their function is tohave a high surface area so that each
gill is producing you know, millionsof spores which which then drop from the
gill out into the out of theair. Really and then they're microscopic,
(16:42):
tiny, tiny, you can thinkof them like seeds really to produce that
then blow around, settle somewhere andpotentially start to form a new new growth.
And the and as mentioned the thethreads of the where the mushrooms getting
(17:03):
its nutrition from is all inside thisstump and probably going out into the roots
of the stump as well. Isthere a term for describing like a big
collection of mushroom there is, sothis form of growth form can be described
as trooping, trooping, trooping,So you've got a large troop of these
(17:23):
sulfur tuffs. And this also hasanother interesting feature that needs to be dark
to see it, because these mushroomsare one of a range that biofluoresce,
so will reflect ultra violet light indifferent colors. So some mushrooms are bioluminescent
(17:49):
will produce their own light. It'sa I've never I can't put my hand
on my heart as I've ever seenthat, even though a common and some
common species do do it. Butit's a very faint light. It's it's
one that you can record using photography, but but difficult to see with the
naked eye. In the UK atleast bluminescence. But this is I think
(18:15):
I'm correcting something. We might haveto need to chet this. But biofluorescence
where it's reflecting reflecting lights. Ifyou shine a UV light at this,
it glows very brightly shines back.So that's an interesting and the reason for
it, I'm not sure is ahwhy something's biofluoresce. It's not completely understood.
(18:41):
So so are we going to tryand record some of this biosonify?
I guess that's it can do thatif you wants behind us, Why don't
we give that a go cha?I'm okay. So what color are the
(22:19):
wax caps? Okay, so theycome in a variety of colors, So
there are yellows. What oh,here's something straight away? Talk that up.
Some white ones here, possibly snowywax caps. I'll pick one to
have a look at. Quite small. They vary in size from you know,
(22:42):
this is on the small side toquite a bit bigger than this with
different species. But they're often verybrightly colored. But they're the sort of
typical mushroom shape with the stem orstipe and the cap. Quite the gills
on the underside of white well spacedand as with their name, we felt
(23:06):
the butter cap earlier was very greasy. The caps, as you might expect,
are quite sort of waxy, andthere's white yellows, lots of reds,
greens. The parrot wax cap isgreen. There's a black one blackening
wax cap, and there's a pinkone ballerina wax cap, which is a
(23:27):
rare species that has been found here, so we'll keep it open for that.
It is quite quite an unusual one. But yeah, so it's this
is the habitat for it, undisturbedsoil on grassland, So quite a rare
habitat really, but we've got plentyof it here. So, uh,
(23:57):
how does the habitat mean that theappearance of the fruit, the mushroom fruit
is different? What? What whatis it about feeding? The changes there?
Yeah, you just don't. Theyjust don't. They simply won't grow
on improved soil. So as soonas you've been plowed or nitrogen added,
(24:18):
it's you know, the wax capwill disappear. So, yes, so
as soon as as soon as asI say, as soon as the soil
is more of a heel, assoon as the soil plowed up or nutrients
added suddenly there's oh, here wego. This is yeah, so this
(24:44):
is our parrot wax cap. It'slike a green tinge green and yellow,
so quite like obviously the as thename suggests. This one's got quite a
slimy cap. But it's a reallybright green, isn't it so bright green?
The stipe starting at the cap reallybright green, going to quite a
bright yellow round the base of thestipe, and then yellow and green around
(25:08):
the around the cap. You cansee the This is called a stri eight
cap where you can see the usthe lines of the gill where the gills
are through the top of the cap. Yeah, and you can. And
it's in amongst some others now becausethey're starting to go over it's difficult to
so I think these are probably allparrot wax caps here, but yeah,
(25:32):
and this will be quite even.The cap of this will be quite a
bright green at times as well.So, yeah, parrot wax cap cap
(28:51):
you've been listening to. If you'dlike to keep listening, visit homesounds dot
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well as many more opportunities to activelylisten and numerous ways to support and get
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(29:15):
poppy Land Radio, which broadcasts livesounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the silver
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