Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Purple Club Coral

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all Americans today, whatever part of the world they may be living in. Our Canadian Thanksgiving was on 13 October 2014. We have so much to be thankful for, even when times are tough. A photo from my archives, taken when I went with a few friends to Upper Kananaskis Lake on 5 August 2012, where we hiked the Sarrail Falls Trail. Our original plans had been to hike the Mt. Everest Trail (which I'd never be able to manage now!), but coming across a Grizzly Bear sow and cub right near the parking lot made us change our plans : ) I was thrilled that we found this fungus along the trail – I had only ever seen it once before (in West Bragg Creek, Kananaskis). A difficult fungus to photograph in the forest, but any photo is better than none : ) Some nice moss and lichen growing around it, too. "The fruit body 3-12cm high, 2-6mm wide individually; numerous slender cylindrical to spindle-shaped, compressed fruit bodies in a tuft; purple, lavender, amethyst, or pale brownish or smoky purple fading to pinky-buff." From Rogers Mushrooms website. www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5739.asp

Two days ago, I went with a few friends to Upper Kananaskis Lake, where we hiked the Sarrail Creek Falls Trail. Our original plans had been to hike the Mt. Everest Trail, but coming across a Grizzly Bear sow and cub right near the parking lot, made us change our plans : ) I was thrilled that we found this fungus along the trail - I've only ever seen it once before (in West Bragg Creek, Kananaskis). Had a bit of a problem photographing it, partly because of the light. Photos using flash, like this one, came out sharper but paler. Photos without flash were darker but rather blurry .... sigh. I had similar problems a year ago, on the same trail. Also, my camera is developing similar problems to problems I had with previous FZ models - maybe I just wear out my cameras, as I do take a lot of photos!

I had never seen this unusual fungus before and not since, anywhere. It was growing in the West Bragg Creek Natural Area on 20th August and has sort of an amusing story behind its discovery. Friend Doug was there, too, and he had put his precious notebook (full of botany records) down while he was photographing something in the forest. After continuing on his way, he realized that he didn't have his book. So, we turned around and did a search. It was during this search that Doug came across this fungus! A lovely sighting - and thankfully, he found his book again, too (which was far more important!).