Trametes versicolor
Found on a fallen oak, three seasons into decomposition. The concentric bands of color — cream, brown, rust, blue — form a topographic map of decay. Each ring represents a new wave of enzymatic action, slowly returning wood to soil.
Ips typographus traces
Not the beetle itself but its calligraphy — the branching tunnel system carved between bark and sapwood. The central gallery is the mother tunnel; side galleries radiate outward, each one a larval nursery. An architecture of appetite.
Physarum polycephalum
Neither plant nor animal nor fungus — a single-celled organism that can solve mazes, optimize networks, and remember without a brain. This specimen was found threading along a rotting log, its yellow veins pulsing with a slow, tidal rhythm.
Rhizopogon sp. hyphae
The invisible internet. Gossamer threads thinner than a human hair, connecting tree roots across hectares. Through these channels, sugars flow from mother to seedling, and chemical warnings pass from tree to tree. The forest's nervous system, hiding in plain darkness.