Sep 10, 2025
This is my best guess at what's going on here:
I think this beauty is the urchin earthfan - Thelephora penicillata. It is usually found on the forest floor amongst the mosses and leaf litter, fruiting into little jagged cushions. But this one seems to have decided to gain a little extra height by clambering up and enveloping some tormentil plants!
It looks like the process is killing the vegetation. This is considered an ectomycorhizal fungus and I think it is not attacking the tormentil, just not giving it enough space. I did see something similar last year where a large fern had gained a very frilly earthfan ruff round the base of its fronds and that was showing no ill effects from its hangers-on.
iNaturalist observation 309247255
