Can the result of a fungal invasion be attractive? It sure can. Case in point: Spalted wood.
Spalt is the result of a white rot decay fungi that grows throughout a wood. Artists, furniture makers, and craftspeople seek out spalted wood due to its unique and beautiful dark line patterns and variations in color. The thin dark lines seen above, "zone lines", are actually barriers put up by different fungi colonies to keep each other out! Blue stain is another type of spalting. This occurs when darkly-pigmented fungal hyphae grow in the sapwood parenchyma of a tree, which causes color variation. Spalting can occur in many types of wood. Hardwoods such as maple, birch and beech are sought after because the wood remains relatively structurally sound and usable well into the spalting process.
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