Here's a good example of how some mushrooms and plants “weep.” (Look closely, especially in the shadows.) This is a double red-belted polypore (Fomitopsis pinicola) on what appears to be a dead white spruce tree.

The various polypore fungi commonly are called “shelf” or “bracket” fungi/mushrooms because they attach themselves like shelfs or brackets to (usually dead) trees, which they slowly consume. These fungi not only have no stalks, they have no gills; they have many (“poly”) pores on their undersides through which they spread their seeds. In this case, one of the red-belts is growing directly above the other, which may be bad planning.

Of course, these red-belts are not crying tear drops; they’re apparently excreting mostly excess water caused by an increased metabolism for rapid growth. The weeping process is called guttation (“gut-TAY-shun”), from the Latin gutta, to drop.

Apparently, as the mushroom breaks down its food and grows, it breathes out carbon dioxide and water vapor, but we usually don’t see them. Under certain conditions, that water vapor will condense into visible water droplets that may also contain other substances that need to be excreted.

Something similar happens to humans: We breathe out carbon dioxide and water vaper, but only see the vapor when it crystalizes on cold days. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 12, 2022.) See also the image in the first Comment space.

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