The pictures on this page direct you to fungus and miscellaneous plants around Rio Dulce. To this point I don't have much information about any of them and if you could help me identify them, I would greatly appreciate it. I have just been able to take pictures of them to try and identify them by asking locals, looking on the internet, and looking through any books I can get my hands on.

Fungi help to recycle fallen timber and organic debris. If it were not for the important role played by fungi, the diversity of understory plants species would be greatly reduced. Fungi also return nitrogen from the air into the soil so that other plants are able to benefit. Keep your eyes on the ground if you want to see some of these amazing types of fungi.

Maiden Veil(Dictyophora indusiata)

This species occurs on rich soil in moist spots in forests, especially rainforests. It emerges from a greyish to pale pink 'egg' up to 4cm in diameter, and expands to a cylindrical white stem up to 20cm tall and 3cm in diameter (it's hollow). The top features a conical to bell-shaped cap where a white latticed veil hangs almost to the ground. As it ages the veil (called an idusium) may disintegrate.

To this point I don't have a name for this variety but the locals collect this one for food. It has a great woodsy flavor similar to the morel.

Frangipani

I will bet you didn't know that frangipani is native to Central America and not Hawaii. Ranging in color from white to yellow and magenta with mixtures in between, these fragrant beauties are from here!

Giant Toadstool

()
My jaw dropped when I spotted this one. I have no idea what species it is or if it was edible. Only that it was approximately 12 inches tall and 8 inches wide at the cap.

Fragrant Water Lily

(nymphaea odorata)
There are about 70 different species of water lilies. These are grouped into: night, tropical and hardy. Night lilies bloom in the night. Tropical lilies can be found in tropical climates and bloom at all times of the day. Hardy lilies are able to withstand most conditions and are the most common. Now I'm not sure of the properties of this species, but the Nymphaea caerulea water lily was used for vision quests. I'll leave it at that.

Coral Fungi

() Coral or club fungi are fleshy club or coral-shaped structures, some of which look much like cauliflower.

Pelican flower

(Aristolochia grandiflora) This is truely an amazing flower! The first one I saw was probably a total of 4 feet in length and beautiful! It's not really a flower you want to give your date though because it smells like something dead. It attracts flies and bugs that like feces and then digests them, they're native to the Caribbean and grow on a vine.

Floating Heart

(Nymphoides indica)
The petals have unusual, feathery edges. The flowers are formed above the floating leaves with 20-40 mm long stalks from about October until May. It gets its common name, of floating hearts because of the heart-shaped, bright green leaves which lie on the water surface like those of water lilies (Nymphaea species).

Earth Stars

These fungi begin forming as puffballs, and when the outer skin splits it folds back to form a star shape with a round center. Spores are released into the air through a hole at the top of the round body in this fungus.

Handsome by Night

(Hylocereus undatus)
Very rarely will you see these in bloom. The reason they are called Handsome by night is that they bloom only at night and the blooms die in the day.

Yet another mystery I wish someone would email me what these things are that I find. Another interesting but unknown tree to me is the one that blooms this seed strand. The leaves on the tree are similar to a mimosa, but I am not sure.