Using binoculars to take a photo of Ganoderma sp. on (suspected) Alnus rubra

Access to this windthrown Alnus ruba (red alder) was a bit of an issue – it sat in the middle of a pond! Granted, it was frozen at the time, though I wasn’t about to chance my luck by walking across. It hadn’t been that cold the night before, frankly (only minus 4 degrees Celsius).

I had initially tried to zoom in with my camera to get a good photo, but was limited to only a distant capture of the fungal brackets (which I suspect are Ganoderma applanatum judging by morphology, though I cannot be certain). In a brief moment of absolute intelligence that has probably exhausted supplies for the remainder of this year, I put my camera’s lens up to my binoculars and, after a good few tries, managed to get a decent enough photo. The results are below.

Catastrophic failure near the base of the stem has lead to some younger sprouts becoming dominant. On the remaining stump, many sporophores of suspected Ganoderma applanatum can be identified. This was as close as my camera could get, in terms of zooming in.

Bring out the binoculars! Not a bad image, if I am honest. We can clearly see multiple growth increments on the largest of the brackets.

Cropping the above image to zoom into the sporophore region, its morphology certainly becomes evident. From this image in particular, I am inclined to settle at least with Ganoderma sp.

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