On 4 May 2005 10:12:29 -0700, wrote:

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


Yes, these were done with SEM at 5KV and about 12mm WD. The SEM stub
had a double sticky tab affixed and then I jammed the whole thing onto
a pile of the black stuff. Much came off. What remained is what is
seen. Some of the material got munched into the sticky tab. So they
look like they are submerged. They are. But many on the top are
quite clear. I have images up to 100KX.

Unfortunately, I destroyed the clump thinking that it was a wasp nest.
This was totally wrong. All I have is this specimen stub.

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