I returned to my first Tree of Life to check on its changes since 2017. (See link below.)
Tree of Life
Most of the fungi was gone. Instead it was covered with lichens and mosses.
The bark and covering life forms were still soaking wet from a downpour the day before.
Water was actually traveling through the mosses and dripping onto the ground below.
The tree itself looked less alive but it was totally covered with other forms of life.
It was truly beautiful.
FLOW and Ebb
Zeta threw down a lot of limbs last week.
It is always interesting to look at what has taken up residence on the dead wood of a tree.
These life forms get heavy with rain, then the wind stresses the limb to the point that gravity wins.
Here is a limb full of life.
It is covered with fungi and lichen.
The fungi here is called a jelly.
The lichens are grouped by their form.
They can be crustose, foliose of fruticose depending on whether they appear crusty, leafy of fruity.
If you would like to learn more, use the link below.
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/lichens/gallery/index.shtml
Flow
It seems like this answer would be simple, but it is not.
It is not death that brings them down, its all the new life they create as they die.
While they are old and weakened other things move in.
Insects bore holes through the bark.
Birds peck at the holes to get the insects.
Water gets into the bark and fungi follows.
Now water hides in all those nooks and crannies.
Lichens like this environment so they start settle in and grow.
Moss spores get blown on the breeze and light on this new little habitat.
More rain, more spores, more insects, more holes.
One day there is a wind or a heavy rain.
There is not enough old dead fiber left in the bough to support all that new life,
so it breaks.
Gravity brings the bough back to earth with all the new life on board.
Death is part of a continuum.
Not the end.
Flow
I love plants and fungi.
So how could I not like a lichen? It is both plant(algae) and fungi.
This is called symbiosis.
I hate to admit that I picked this up, stuck it in the pocket of my coat and forgot about it.
Later, I reached in and found this dried up wad.
Amazingly, it plumped back up when I put a few drops of water on it.
I chopped it into pieces to put under the microscope.
Do not worry about its survival. All the pieces are happily growing in one of the terrariums.
floweralley 