The video and photo she takes and posts on social media recording the evolving stages of all kinds of molds have won over her many followers.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The bugs also bring Zhou another problem-they eat the fungi. Once she spots a bug climbing onto her fungus, she will pick it up with a pair of tweezers and move it away gently, without destroying the fungus.

As well as going to the mountains around Shanghai, Zhou also visits other places, such as Southwest China's Yunnan province during the hot summer months to find and photograph fungi.

As she continues to rack up fans and followers online, Zhou doesn't have to go out to find rotten wood that often. She actually receives it-and sometimes even cow dungin the mail from her followers all across the country.

"It's interesting that once some fans see a piece of bark on the street, they may think I need it, and pick it up and send to me," Zhou says with a smile.

Zhou majored in pharmacy at Central South University and graduated in 2013. "I had thought my interest was in traditional Chinese medicine, but during college I realized that my real interest was to observe nature, plants and animals," Zhou says.

She started to post her photos of various creatures in 2012, but she got bored of watching animals and plants in the city. When she noticed fungi, her attention was grabbed as if by some powerful force.

"I like pretty things. For fungi, I'm always looking for and shooting the pretty species," she says.