Fungi

Like every year by mid-May the Patagonian forest is bursting in autumn colors, as lengas, ñires and other Nothofagus trees are turning into yellow, orange and fire-red on the mountain slopes. Last year in San Martín de los Andes area we had the Calbuco volcano eruption, and the forest was partly covered in grey ashes, but this year the fall is being as spectacular as it used to be. As in the north hemisphere spring is starting to melt the ice and the snow, warming the weather and making the minds dream about the prospect of summer holidays, here down south days are turning shorter and shorter,...

The Andean-Patagonian forests, also known as Subantarctic forests, spreads over steep elevations along a thin strip on both sides of the Andes, on southern South America. These are the southernmost forests in the world, and have their origin 45 million years ago on the Gondwana supercontinent, where the forests of South America, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and South Africa have their ancestors. The Patagonian forests can be considered a “green island”, as they have been isolated from other forests for the last 10 million years, resulting on a high number of endemism.   The existence...

This fungi, Hypholoma frowardii, grows almost exclusively on the rotten wood of fallen trees of the Nothofagus genus, which are typical of the sub-antarctic Andean-Patagonian forests. It is one of the most common fungi on those forests. Its fruiting bodies are though and persistent, so they can last for several weeks.   Its pileus is up to 7 cm diam., yellow-brown with a red-brown disc, sometimes greenish. Its flesh is whitish, without odor and its taste is bitter. it is not recommended for eating.   Source: Fungi of the Andean-Patagonian Forests, Gamundi & Horak, Vazquez...