Illustrator Jane Kim and the California Center for Natural History share six species to watch for this fall.

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Illustrator Jane Kim and the California Center for Natural History share six species to watch for this fall.
Plants make all other life on Earth possible. But most animals don’t eat dead plants — so how do the nutrients plants create get into the environment when the plant dies?
In which California is the first state to have a state lichen.
Nobody knows California’s incredible, diverse lichens like Stephen Sharnoff, author of the new A Field Guide to California Lichens.
A pioneering experiment in the East Bay shows how mushrooms can reduce toxins or harmful microbes in the water supply
Bracket fungi, named for their shelf-like structure, can often be seen fanned out of decaying wood. How can you identify them?
Oakland’s Knowland Park boasts unparalleled views of the San Leandro Bay, gnarled coast live oak trees and stands of rare, maritime chaparral. But within this large landscape, one of nature’s smallest communities is flourishing—lichen.
Lichens are not so much a taxonomic category as a way of life; as lichenologist Trevor Goward put it, “Lichens are fungi that have discovered agriculture.”
Culinary uses aside, fungi have their own aesthetic appeal: the spectral elegance of the amanitas, the vivid reds and greens of the waxy caps.
The beauty, and danger, of Amanita mushrooms.