A tiny blue mushroom on the forest floor, it almost went unnoticed. In fact, I only saw it because I was crouched down photographing other fungi on a tree trunk, and that blue color caught my attention. It was well camouflaged among the leaf litter.
Before I got closer, I didn’t even think it was a fungus, I had never seen one like this before. It’s so beautiful!
After researching it on the internet, I believe it is a young specimen of Phaeoclavulina cyanocephala, a type of coral fungus. Through iNaturalist I was able to confirm that it is indeed this species.
I couldn’t find much information about it in English or Portuguese, but Larissa Trierveiler commented on Instagram that its common name in Portuguese is Coral-azul (Blue coral). It was only about 2 cm tall, and from photos on the internet I saw that it would still grow quite a bit. Unfortunately, I was no longer able to go to that area and see how it grew.
I wonder how many of these little fungi we end up not seeing, or even stepping on by accident! When you walk in a preserved Atlantic Forest, every square meter has so much life and diversity, it is truly incredible.
📸 Pictures made in October, 2023 in São Francisco de Paula, Rio Grande do Sul (Serra Gaúcha, South of Brazil).