Going out in a blaze of 'shroom-ery...

On my way to work a large maple tree along the side of the highway caught my attention, not because its leaves have already changed into their fall colours, but for random sprays of bright orange and yellow all over its trunk.

I quickly turned around and hauled out my camera. Almost every large crevice has a multitude of yellow and orange bracket fungi spewing forth. This is beautiful to see agains the grey of the bark, but undoubtedly not a healthy sign for the maple. You see, fungi like to decompose trees and their parts. This fungus seems to be going at it quite feverishly, at least this year.