Creature Feature: Leafy Brain Fungus

Leafy Brain fungus (above) feeding on a hairy curtain crust fungus (below), which is, in turn, feeding on a dead oak log.

Is it coral? Fancy poop? A ball of worms? This month's creature is a fungus, feeding on a fungus, feeding on dead oak wood. Nature is so cool. 

The leafy brain fungus (top) is a type of jelly fungus, but it feels more like cold, cooked pasta to me. Think gooey and bouncy.

Leafy brain is a parasite of the hairy curtain crust fungus (bottom), so they are often seen side-by-side on rotten logs. The leafy, brainy, hairy, and crusty parts of these mushrooms are just the "fruits" of a much larger organism, like an apple is to a tree. The rest of the fungus is a network of tiny, hair-like tubes that branch and fuse and search for nutrients and water underground (or inside rotting logs, in this case). That network is called the mycelium, and in some cases, it even trades resources with other fungi and plants.