Sometimes a work of art hits you hard in the feels (as the yoof never say). This gorgeous illustration appeals to me in so many wonderful ways: mushroom, rain, gastronomy, humour, verse, silliness, anthropomorphised British woodland creatures. It’s a grab bag of excellence from start to finish. 

The Poetic Factoid is, I’ll admit it, a little odd (out of left field even) & is the only result I could find when entering the search terms “mushroom” + “moles” into the wonderful web of the world. 

Plus there’s even a Bonus Poem inspired by today’s Poetic Factoid. Win-Win-Win for poetry lovers.

*****

Page 37 [Picture Perfect]

First encountered the delightful 
image in a meme which reads:
“What is your retirement strategy?
Bro, I just want to be a well-dressed 
mole enjoying tea under a mushroom.

What with my snug fitting gold vest
Hot beverage. Picnic basket. Biscuit.
All while dry & watching the rain.
Add a book or four into the scene
& I would literally feel it was heaven.

Yet my blessed life was made even better 
when upon searching for the source
discovered it in a book of nonsense verse:
A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up & Tied His Horse 
To Me my own second-hand copy promptly ordered.

The joy upon realising it was cropped 
from an even greater whole was a buzz.
A bedraggled fox & wet rat standing
beneath a broken brolly in a stream
as cats & dogs tumble down overhead.

Ah, lovely Devon . . .
Where it rains eight days out of seven!

Rain on the green-grass & rain on the tree,
Rain on the house-top, but not on me.

*****

Day 11 Factoid – Investigation Into Interdependence Between Moles & Mushrooms Reveals Odd Relationship of Convenience

Myco-talpology
the science of mushrooms & talpid moles

Four Japanese scientists 
                          have discovered
it’s possible to locate underground 
mole nests 
                   by the aboveground 
fruiting of  Hebeloma danicum 
       or Hebeloma sagarae

They say: hyphae 
                           of these mushrooms 
       colonise mole latrines 
near nests           forming ectomycorrhizas 
       with their host trees’ roots

Via this strangely specific 
                                        symbiosis
the hyphae & roots      absorb
   transform, & translocate 
                                      nutrients 
from mole excretions
thereby cleaning 
                             the mole’s habitat. 

*NB note the language used in this poem is heavily based on Naohiko Sagara, Nobuko Tuno, Yu Fukasawa, & Shin-ichiro Kawada’s abstract to their paper: Mushrooms arising from the mole latrine reveal the life of talpid moles: proposals of ‘myco-talpology’ and ‘habitat-cleaning symbiosis’ published in The European Zoological Journal.

Link: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.22.513302v1.full

*****

Day 11 BONUS POEM – Written After Skimming the Full Paper (all 63 pages including 17 Figures, Charts & Graphs)

Quirky Researchers

The fact there are such people in our world
Who dedicate years of study gathering data
About a myriad of arcane & distinct topics
Fills me with such a rush of joyful satisfaction 
For every researcher & their glorious quirky passion.