Tiny Red Capped Fungi

[Dude12o]

I found these tiny mushrooms today at work. I am currently working in Hot Springs Arkansas. They were growing on top of some wooden posts. The caps of these mushrooms were as small as the tip of a ball point pen, probably the smallest mushrooms I have ever found. Does anyone know what these are? Whatever they are, aren't they cool looking?!

[Jeff Falcone]

Pretty sure that's just lichen, not fungus

https://www.pilotonline.com/life/home-garden/article_e7993ff2-132f-5293-a5de-9009d4fd0cc3.html

Cladonia cristatella or similar

[Dude12o]

I had this suspicion. Never seen anything like it before. When I saw it I kind of got excited. I find it fascinating how much it resembles fungi.

Thank you for sharing the link!

Well I just looked up on Wikipedia and found out lichen is in the fungal kingdom. I didn't know this, I'm still fairly new to mycology. 

[Dave W]

Lichens are actually composite organisms, with a fungal component. Something I didn't know until I just read this is that lichen specie are included within the Kingdom of Fungi. I believe that the fungal component of any lichen is an ascomycete. Thus, lichen species are classified within the phylum Ascomycota  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen 

[Jeff Falcone]

7 hours ago, Dave W said:

Lichens are actually composite organisms, with a fungal component. Something I didn't know until I just read this is that lichen specie are included within the Kingdom of Fungi. I believe that the fungal component of any lichen is an ascomycete. Thus, lichen species are classified within the phylum Ascomycota  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen 

 Very cool. I don’t know anything about lichen biology

[Dude12o]

I'm glad we could all learn something from this. I tried to take some more detailed photos today.

Well, the resolution of the photos on my phone look way better. There must be a limit on how detailed photos can be that are uploaded.

[troutddicted]

Incredible world of lichens!

[Dude12o]

I know right! I thought they were little mushrooms. I have seen lichen plenty of times before, but never anything like this. I had no idea that lichen is both plant (algae) and fungi. I just assumed it was just a plant similar to moss. But looking at these pictures it makes sense that lichen would contain a fungal component.

Here are some more pictures I took when the sun finally came out. These photos are unedited other than cropping and rotation.

 

 

 

 

[Dave W]

These little guys are quite photogenic! 

Cladonia gracilis  

[Dude12o]

What an amazing little organism. Very hard to take a picture of something so small. My camera is definitely not good enough to take a picture that close up, it would never focus. It looks like something you would see on an alien planet, or maybe on the bottom of the ocean. The diversity of life on our planet never fails to fascinate and excite me.

[Dave W]

I use a $100 Canon camera. It has a couple different per-sets for macro that I use. When I come upon an interesting small subject I snap a lot of photos using each of the two different settings. The photo seen above was the best out of a dozen or so. Sometimes it's just a matter of being lucky if the camera focused the way I want.