Say hi to Chestnut 🍄 The start to my #noodoll family 🧸💕 Credits to @bigbisc.bsky.social for the crochet mushrooms and basket 🥹❤️ #fungifriends

Sea slugs are cute, beautiful and enchanting ✨🐌 But their name is just a colloquial umbrella term for many different ‘slug-like’ sea creatures. Let’s break it down once and for all! (Expand thread for typed version.) #seaslugs #nudibranchs #sacoglossans #seahares #seaangels #marineanimals

Bioluminescent #fungi + dead wood = sustainable light source? Scientists co-cultivated ringless honey mushrooms (Desarmillaria tabescens) and decaying wood to create a glowing biohybrid. This works because the fungus produces luciferin, a light-emitting compound, after breaking down lignin! 📄🔗⬇️

Saw these on the side of the road earlier this year. What species might they be? #fungifriends #fungi #mushroom

The #bluenature series will now be on break but will likely come back next month! I have ideas for different themes, so stay tuned :)

Day 7 of #bluenature, the North Island kōkako (Callaeas wilsoni). This bird gave the blue pinkgill (see Day 4) its Māori name, werewere-kōkako, because of its blue wattle (loose skin hanging from the neck). It is otherwise black/grey and sometimes called the “blue-wattled crow”. 📷 Matt Binns

Mushrooms of the Psilocybe genus is rich in #psilocybin, a well-known psychedelic compound. Once ingested, psilocybin is metabolised to psilocin, which activates serotonin receptors in the brain (5-HT2A). But the effects vary greatly depending on the person and the context! #fungifriends 🍄‍🟫

Day 6 of #bluenature, cyanobacteria 🦠 A phylum with 6000+ species, their colour comes from pigments like phycocyanin (blue) and chlorophyll (green). They’re the first organisms known to produce O2, contributing to the Great Oxygenation Event and the oxygen-rich atmosphere today! 📷 Willem van Aken

Day 5 of #bluenature, the blue dragon 🌊🐉 This mythlike creature (Glaucus atlanticus) has a blue underbelly and a silver-grey back. But they swim upside-down, so the blue side faces up. This is an example of countershading, making them harder to spot by predators above and below! 📷 Sylke Rohrlach

Calling #fungifriends for day 4 of #bluenature, the blue pinkgill! The skyblue mushroom (Entoloma hochstetteri) is the first of the series so far to be blue due to pigmentation by azulene. It’s also the only mushroom to be featured on money - New Zealand’s $50 note! 📷 Mary Smiley (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Day 3 of #bluenature, forget-me-nots! There are ~60 species of Myosotis, a name that comes from Greek for “mouse’s ear”. Most are blue, but some are pink! 🌸 They’re also called scorpion grasses for the way they arrange in a spiral, like the curve of a scorpion tail 🦂 📷 hedera.baltica (Flickr)

Day 2 of #bluenature, the adorable lumpfish (Cylcopterus lumpus)! 🐟 The only species of its genus, lumpfish are useful cleaner fish used in salmon fisheries to get rid of parasitic copepods. Only juveniles appear blue due to biofluorescence — adults and babies look green! 📷 Reidun Marie Bjelland

Day 1 of #bluenature, the icon of #bluesky 🦋 Morpho is a genus of butterflies found mostly in South/Central America and Mexico. Their blue colour comes not from pigmentation, but iridescence caused by the structure of their microscopic scales! 📷 credit: TexasEagle (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Should I start a #bluenature challenge where I post something blue from nature every day? 🦋🏞️

Interesting severe weather warning.

Hello #bluesky, here’s a photo of a rare blue sky in Manchester ☀️

Everyone should know that (longnecked) giraffe weevils (Trachelophorus giraffa) exist. Only the males have the long necks, which they predictably use to attract females by swaying them in a mating dance. 📷 credit: Frank Vassen (CC BY 2.0)