The meaning of colour, or lack of.

We are coming to the end of the main fungi season and toadstools are dying off in their droves. Some, however are still energetically thrusting their way out of the forest floor, as in the case of this unidentified individual which I found this morning. Comparing this rather drab species with the showy, scarlet waxcap that I blipped yesterday, got me thinking about colour. Why are some toadstools/mushrooms brightly coloured whilst other are drab or even white? Does colour have a function, conferring an advantage in the struggle to survive and reproduce? You might expect so, given that the manufacture of coloured compounds involves the expenditure of energy, energy which could otherwise have been devoted to producing yet more reproductive spores. Well, if there is an obvious function then it evades me.

Perhaps Dr Dennis E. Desjardin, professor of mycology at San Francisco State University, was correct when he wrote, I think tongue in cheek, "But who knows, maybe mushrooms come in fantastic shapes and colors just to enhance the aesthetics of this planet, thereby making us humans happier and more conservation minded!"

What do you think?