FungiFriday: A Crowd in Silence
Finding a crowd in the forest always keeps me away from feeling lonely. This was still about the mushroom walk we did a week ago in the woods near the 231st Radar Unit headquarters, the Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU), located south of Lhokseumawe.
At that time we decided to go deep in. We passed a rather steep, mossy, and slippery path. The dark brownish litter was getting thicker on the forest floor. We were increasingly convinced that finding interesting mushrooms in such an environment had greater potential. But there was something odd; I felt my vision was blurry in the dim environment.
We had to stop several times when we heard loud noises. Initially, we thought it was a wild boar, but it turned out to be langurs that captured our attention. They jumped and screamed on the branches of the tree canopy. We ignored them!
Aside from wild boar, we were quite concerned about encountering a cobra. We hope that never happens! Several times, I observed yellow-banded millipedes crawling on the damp litter. This one is much larger than the common red millipede.
On the next uphill path, I saw a white crowd on a fallen tree. There were countless numbers of them—maybe dozens or even hundreds. A cluster of fairy inkcaps (Coprinellus disseminatus)!
It was at that spot that we sat down to rest, sipped mineral water, and lit a cigarette while gazing in awe at those wonderful fairy inkcaps.
