Omphalotus nidiformis, or ghost fungus, is a bioluminescent gilled
mushroom that occurs primarily in southern Australia and Tasmania, and
has been reported from India. The cream-coloured fan- or funnel-shaped
caps, up to 30 cm (12 in) across, have shades of orange, brown,
purple, or bluish-black. The white or cream gills run down the length of
the stalk, which is up to 8 cm (3 in) long and tapers in thickness to
the base. The fungus is both saprotrophic and parasitic, and its fruit
bodies are generally found growing in overlapping clusters on a wide
variety of dead or dying trees. First described scientifically in 1844,
O. nidiformis (from Latin for 'nest-shaped') was known by several names
before Orson K. Miller Jr. assigned its current name in 1994. Similar in
appearance to the common edible oyster mushrooms, O. nidiformis is
poisonous, with compounds called illudins that can produce severe cramps
and vomiting.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_nidiformis>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1805:
Lewis and Clark Expedition: Meriwether Lewis became the first
white American to sight the Great Falls (Black Eagle Falls pictured) of
the Missouri River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Falls_%28Missouri_River%29>
1944:
Second World War: At the Battle of Villers-Bocage, German tank
commander Michael Wittmann destroyed around 30 Allied vehicles in less
than 15 minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittmann>
1970:
"The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' twentieth and
final number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_and_Winding_Road>
2019:
Two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman amidst
heightened tensions between Iran and the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2019_Gulf_of_Oman_incident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
nitrox:
1. (metallurgy) An industrial process for case hardening (imparting
greater surface hardness to) metal objects, involving nitrocarburizing
(the diffusion of carbon and nitrogen into the metal) followed by
oxidation.
2. (underwater diving) A mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, the nitrogen
content being lower than what is normally present in air, which is used
in place of air as a breathing gas.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nitrox>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
A powerful class by terror, rhetoric, and organised
sentimentality, may drive their people to war but the day draws near
when they cannot keep them there.
--The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_William_Butler_Yeats>