The rarely seen fruiting body of the Green Elf cup fungus Chlorociboria aeruginascens forms small cups up to 5mm on the dead branches of deciduous trees, especially oak. The mycelium of this fungus growing through wood gives it a conspicuous blue-green colour, which was traditionally used to make decorative veneers by compressing strips of different coloured wood together. ‘Green oak’ was highly prized by fine woodworkers in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Alex Hyde is one of Britain’s leading exponents of close-up nature photography. His award-winning images portray a hidden world of extraordinary beauty. “To this day I delight in revealing tiny details of subjects that would be missed by the naked eye. Many of my pictures involve photographing moving subjects smaller than a grain of rice. Nature provides me with an endless array of fascinating subjects.”
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