Spotted!

Took my son to airsoft this morning and spotted (excuse pun!) these leaves and it reminded me of one of the case studies we learnt about when I was doing my degree.

While this fungus is very common on tree leaves in the countryside, the fact it's rarely seen in cities was a huge puzzle to environmental scientists. As it's obviously not good for the trees, solving this mystery was quite important. One theory was that pollution in built-up areas killed the fungus but it turned out that it was simply because, unlike in more rural areas, fallen leaves in urban areas are usually swept up, preventing the fungus from moving back into the soil and infecting new growth.

Unfortunately, this isn't the topic of any of the squillion lessons I've planned today but it might be useful one day!