Dear Gary,
Most interesting! Clearly you have a scanning electron microscope at
work. I used to do a lot on plant specimens. How did you prepare the
specimens prior to photography? My suspicion is that you sprinkled the
"spores" on a stub, maybe attaching them with double sided tape, and
then gold coated??? I suspect that the "sucked in" look is probably an
artefact, but you could only overcome this if you fixed the specimens
and used a critical point drier.
My absolute guess is you have something like a puffball, but I am not
great at fungi, and certainly not Californian fungi (I am in the UK!).
Maybe if you put up a photo of the "clump" it might aid in the ID. I
shall watch this string to see if we get anywhere!
Best Wishes,
Martin Hodson

Gary G wrote:
I found an usual clump in an outside corner of a door and figured
that
it was another wasp nest. Nope. It was fiber-like and very black
inside, of powder consistency. I figure that it is a fungus. The
"spores" look like pollen but differ in the protrusions that one
would
see on white blood cells. The following are links to images of this
stuff. Anyone have a clue to what this is?

http://www.microtechnics.com/fungi-1kx-1ann.jpg


http://www.microtechnics.com/fungi-10kx-1ann.jpg

AFAIK, there is no mycology group.

Gary Gaugler, Ph.D.
Microtechnics, Inc.
Granite Bay, CA 95746
916.791.8191
gary@microtechnics dot com