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| The Texas Star Ferris Wheel. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. |
My dreams last night were filled with fascinating revelations. I dreamt that I had a cinnamon-brown psychotropic dust blown at me; not unlike the way the zombi dust was blown at people in the film "The Serpent & The Rainbow." However, unlike zombi dust, this was a pleasant, benevolently mind-altering blend. I was told its name -- more than once -- very clearly. A mysterious dream entity who obviously wanted me to remember & carry the name with me out of the dream realm, prompted me to repeat it. Immediately after I repeated the word aloud, baby woke me to nurse. I recall thinking, "I should write that down. Really, I should." But alas, in my early a.m. delirium, I convinced myself that I would remember in the morning. Ha.
What does this have to do with Texas? Nothing.
Texas has been a bit of a struggle for me, my only encounter with this land being a layover at Dallas Fort Worth enroute from Frankfurt to Salt Lake City. After I spent altogether too much time belaboring Texas, I made a last ditch, I'll-try-anything attempt & entered a search something akin to "brown spore dust Texas." I was not surprised to find that this rendered nothing much relevant to the spore dust, BUT, it did present THIS:
Chorioactis geaster, The Texas Star
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| Chorioactis geaster, the Texas Star, photo found at pinktentacle.com. |
This fungus is so incredibly rare that it is only documented in two places in the world:
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| Here. |
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| And here. |
Japan & Texas. Truly extraordinary.
In Texas, this fungus is found fruiting only during the fall and winter, where it grows on dead cedar elm trees. This means it is most likely a saprophyte (Yay!), which is an important part of my plan. Perfect.
Outside of actually having personally met this fungi, I cannot imagine a more ideal 'pardner for the Lone Star State. Texas is seriously about stars:
Goddess of Freedom holding star atop Texas State capitol & Seal of the Republic of Texas
Floor of the Texas State Capitol & Texas State Capitol Rotunda (interior).
I had to restrain myself from filling this post with images of Texas stars. I love stars & there's enough of them out there for someone to publish a coffee table book the size of Texas (if it hasn't already been done). I am pretty cozy with a star or two of my own, so that's some imagery that I can work with tonight.
May the star of lady Freedom shine bright upon our beloved country. May the Star of Texas purify & protect the place it calls home.
All photos in this post are courtesy Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise noted.
2 comments:
What a cool mushroom! I will have to do more research on it. Thanks for the post. You always come up with intriguing examples of fungal diversity :)
And "Serpent and the Rainbow" is one of my most favorite movies ever!
Isn't it? It kind of looks like an alien pod before it opens. Honestly, my head almost exploded over this one, but I am sure I will find something more incredible soon.
I recently picked up the book "The Serpent & the Rainbow" but haven't had time to read it yet... of course, that could be because I am too busy looking up mushrooms. ;)
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