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| Mesocyclone near Guymon Oklahoma May 2007 (photo credit unknown, found here) |
Years ago, a friend of mine told me about a magickal technique to rid yourself of someone annoying. The process was simple: as they prattle on to you about this-or-that, think of something hazy or vacuous like clouds or marshmallow fluff. This method can be quite confounding to the speaker & unless they are blindly & hopelessly narcissistic, they will lose their train of thought, grow weary of trying to talk to you & leave you in peace.
Confusion: a gentle way to deter the intent of another.
Morel mushrooms are masters of obfuscation. While they are often saprophytic, they can also be mycorrhizal (symbiotic with trees) which alone is a bit of an oddity. Add to this the fact that scientists have always been unclear about this group of mushrooms; are there only 3-5 species or closer to 50? Newer evidence suggests that there are 16 "DNA-defined" morels but there are also some not DNA-defined "morels." Adding to the conundrum is the fact that the lot of them cannot actually be identified using conventional key factors (i.e., physical, ecological, geographic info.) & that what we consider "morels" are not necessarily as closely related to each other as we might think. Are you confused yet? (If you are really ambitious, see a more detailed & eloquent explanation here: DNA Morels Versus Morphological Morels.)
So, what are morels? Confounding.
Today, let us envision muddied clouds, marshmallows & morels... over Oklahoma.
2 comments:
Morels are not confounding! They are absolutely yummy! Matters not to my tastebuds whether they are genetic or morphological.
Well... I must confess, I am more of a bolete girl myself. (Of course, they can be confounding too.) ;)
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