Saturday 12 November 2016

Big Conk


    Conks are fungus that grow inside trees.  They put out a mushroom-like fruiting body on the outside of the tree is the part people can see.  I came upon this giant conk growing on an aspen tree the other day.  It is one of the biggest conks I have ever seen.  I put my pocket knife on the fallen tree to give some sense of scale.  The knife is 3.5 inches ( 9cm) long, so the width of the conk is a about 16 inches (40cm) across.  
    I mentioned that most of the conk grows inside of the tree, decomposing it.  You can see in the photo how “punky” the wood is.  That weakened the tree causing it to blow down in the wind.
    I have seen people collect conks and paint images on the underside of the conk, then sell them.

You can view my paintings (not on conks) at www.davidmarchant.ca

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