Cypress knees

I'm just waiting for the rest of the photos from my phone to synch with my computer so I can share the day's actual exciting news. In the meantime, here's a photo of a mushroom growing beside the knobby knee of a bald cypress. 

It's one of my favourite trees here in the south because aside from being very pretty it's rather unique. It's a deciduous conifer and loses its needles every fall (it was rather alarming the first time I saw a little grove of these around a pond all seemingly "die"). They put out little pneumatophores—these knee-like projections—that are thought to either be used to bring air to drowning roots or anchor the trees better. 

This particular patch of knees was growing inside the playground at the park near the pool (where Phoebe and I were killing time while waiting for Benjamin to get out of his practice).