Notices by Dan McCullough (danmccullough@ecoevo.social)

#SilentSunday

#SilentSunday

I was hoping to find a few “lifers” in our trip to the Pacific Northwest. And I did! This is Pig’s Ear, a mushroom that can be purplish or grey in youth, and aging to various shades of tan.

We don’t often think of mushrooms as being threatened but this one carries a Category B concern due to habitat loss. It is typically found in mountainous conifer old-growth forests.

Pig’s Ear
[Gomphus clavatus]

#FungiFriday #Mushrooms #Fungi

Standing beneath an art display in the Washington Park Arboretum. The installation hangs from the canopy of the trees which you can see on the other side.

Title: Union
Artist: John Grade

#TextureTuesday #Art

This fashionable mushroom came with its own lighting and backdrop.

Vermillion Wax Cap [Hygrocybe miniata]

#FungiFriday #Mushrooms #Fungi

The ocean floor on the forest floor.

A type of [Ramaria] coral mushroom.

#FungiFriday #Mushrooms #Fungi

New England meadows in September are just so lovely.

#Meadows #WednesdayWalks

That’s how you do it!

Baby Porcupine ventured out alone and crossed #PorcupineBridge for the 1st time! 😊

Quite a determined effort!

#Porcupines #Trailcam

The best time to find slime molds is in the summer after heavy rain. Well, that’s exactly what we have had at the house… or should I say, ON the house??

Slime molds have 2 stages: plasmodial and fruiting. In the first, they are capable of movement. They can climb things. In the second, they can have very cool shaped bodies as they prepare to release their spores.

This one climbed the wooden siding of my house. 😳

Chocolate Tube Slime
[Stemonitis splendens]

#SlimeMolds #SlimeMoulds #Protists

#SilentSunday

#SilentSunday

The sea urchins of the garden.

Globe Thistles

#BloomScrolling #Pollinators

Baby Porcupine of 2023 now has her own Baby Porcupine to teach the finer points of eating my yard. 🤗

#Porcupines

I rarely take panoramic photos, but…

ROOT!

#Trees #WoodedStream

It’s a good day to hang out in the moss. I might be there soon.

Wood Frog

#Moss #Mosstodon #Frogs

#SilentSunday

There is a fully visible insect in this picture.

I swear.

See alt-text for the spoiler.

#insects

Like something you’d see in the pastry case.

Varnished Polypore, Hemlock Reishi
[Ganoderma tsugae]

#FungiFriday #Mushrooms #Mushtodon

When I worked at a nature sanctuary, we had lots of Pink Lady Slippers.

Unfortunately, people would steal them, (presumably) to transplant them in their own yards.

It isn’t that easy. Lady Slippers depend on a symbiotic relationship with fungi. More often than not, digging them up is a death sentence.

We tried to educate people not to take them. When that didn’t work we put up “Keep Out - Poison Ivy!” signs on the edges of where they grew.

That worked pretty well.

#Flowers #BloomScrolling

Some common names are just perfect.

Moss Bells [Galerina hypnorum]
(Several similar mushrooms are often assigned this identification.)

#FungiFriday #Mushrooms #Fungi