This is a shelf fungus growing on a red maple limb but it doesn’t have that tidy, tired or layered look that shelf or bracket fungi are supposed to have.
What happened here us that the shelf fungus began growing horizontally out of a dead nearly vertical tree limb as normal, but the tree limb broke from the tree at some point during the mushroom’s growth and fell to the ground. Instead of remaining vertical, the limb ended up lying at an angle roughly perpendicular to its original orientation.
The fungus continued to grow horizontally as if nothing had changed, but because the position of the limb was now 90 degrees off, so is the orientation of the newest mushroom growth, which extends horizontally on both top and bottom of the outer edge of the original shelf. As a result, we have what looks like bracket fungi growing perpendicular to itself. In cross section it would form a T.
If we measured the rate of growth per day we could roughly calculate when the limb broke off based on where the direction of growth changed.
As it happens, we had a little windstorm not too long before I found these and that is probably when the limb came down.
Now the question is, how do fungi “know” what is horizontal to the ground in order to keep that style of growth regardless of their foundations’ orientation? How does this kind of organism’s cells sense and respond to position, gravity, or exposure to light or other input, and is it similar to the way trees seek light?
Anyway, all questions aside, this is the kind of detail, along with puddles, fallen leaves, and such, which can help in illustrating a scene, with which an artist can relay information - there has been a storm and not too many days ago - without having to resort to adding text.To improve your art, cultivate curiosity about everything. Carefully study the world around you.
—— Susan A. Walton, artist