'shroom Season

 Last night I got home late - after 8 PM.  The dog was chompin' at the bit to go out, so I looped leash around his neck and out we went.  He gave a good long watering to the grass under the birdfeeders, and we struck out for the mailbox.  As we crossed the lawn, I looked down and there are my feet was this wrinkly mushroom:

Oo!  Is that a morel?  I looked around, and there was another one.  After much debate, I dragged the dog to the car, grabbed the camera, and started to photograph them.

I recalled the false morel Gary had shown us during the Work Bee a couple weeks ago, so I turned the mushroom over to check.  Sure enough, the stem attached to the base of the cap - this was the real thing.

I wandered back and forth across the yard, looking for more.  There was one!  And another!

Soon I had a whole bowl full of morels.

Now, I'm not really a mushroom person, but I knew some of the folks at work were.  So I bagged up my harvest and brought them in, much to my coworker's delight.

These particular morels are yellow morels (Morchella esculenta), apparently sometimes called white morels.  There are also black morels.  These are the edible ones.  They can be identified by the stem/cap setup described above, but also, if you cut them in half lenghtwise, they are hollow inside.

There is also the half-free morel, which is connected to the stem about half-way up the inside of the cap.  These are also edible.  For a good description, visit the Michigan Morels website.

False morels, and beefsteak morels, are poisonous.  They are solid inside, the cap is attached to the stem way up at the top interior part of the cap, and they are not considered pitted, just wrinkly.

From The Great Morel Page, I've swiped the following information about these mushrooms:  Typically they are found in moist areas, around dying or dead Elm trees, Sycamore and Ash trees, old apple orchards and maybe even in your own back yard. Ground cover varies and it is very likely that each patch of mushrooms you come across may be growing in totally different conditions. It is a common practice of shoomer's to hit their favorite spots year after year.

This has been a rather wet spring, and I've been hearing people talk about collecting morels for about a month now - it is apparently quite the thing to do here in Michigan.  As I've said before, I'm not much of a mushroom person, but I do enjoy finding and photographing them, and if I can harvest them for the enjoyment of my friends, I am happy to do so.  Therefore, I join the ranks of many Michiganders in being delighted to find these epicurean delights growing on my own property...and I was able to add one more thing to my life list of found natural objects.

November on the Trails

Last Sunday was the first sunny day I'd seen in a while, so I decided to take the dog for a walk over on the VIC trails. Toby was eager to go, for it had been a while since we walked here and there were lots of new smells to investigate.

The night before we had some granular snow fall, and there was frost everywhere, but the early morning light on the still-green ferns was beautiful.

I couldn't resist this line of puffballs. Many of the puffballs have been pretty well smooshed by those using the trails, but this batch still looked pretty good.


Another canine had walked the trail before us. Fox or coyote - I didn't look closely enough to make a determination. I got a chuckle out of this set of tracks, though; it seems the critter had a bit of trouble with traction on the frosty boards. I walked carefully to avoid a similar slip.


As we neared the beaver pond, I heard quite a rushing of water. If there was any doubt before that the beavers have left, it has evaporated. The trickle from my last visit here is now a roaring breach.


The pond is nearly drained.


I was fascinated by the ice on the remaining water.

To the right of the logs, it was all feathered and rippled,

while to the left it was smooth as could be (without being glass-like). Wind or current had to be the cause.

The lower dam below the bridge had also experienced a rupture. I wonder how long it will be this time until beavers return, patch things up, and call the pond home.

Walking the Other Way

It was downright freezing in the building this morning. A cup of cocoa and a cup of tea did nothing to warm me up. And yet, visitors were coming in all sweaty - it had to be warmer outside. So, out I went.


Our choices are limited here at work: walk out on the peninsula, or walk around the outlet of the lake. Since I did part of the peninsula yesterday, I opted for the outlet today, doing part of the Sucker Brook Trail and all of the Sage Trail.


Several times this week the lack of blue jays has come up in conversation. They were like fleas on a dog earlier in the summer, but for the last few weeks, no one seems to have seen or heard a one. Until this morning - I heard them around the building and again out on the trails, where I also found this feather. So, they are around...they are just hiding.

These white mushrooms were quite plentiful along the one side of the Sucker Brook Trail. I'm pretty confident they are an amanita, but which one I don't know. Possibly A. bisporigera? Whatever species they are, amanitas are all deadly poisonous.

It turned out to be quite the fungusy day. These little ones were all crowded against a rock in the trail.

How beautiful these fungi were, all covered with large dewdrops, glistening in the sun.

Inchworm, inchworm...

A year and a half ago I was flummoxed by some strange growths on the trunk of this birch tree. The are apparently caused by a fungus, Inontus obliquus. You can read about this tree here.

Today when I walked by the same tree, each of those strange growths on the trunk had sprouted twigs. You can see the dormant twigs on the growths above.

Typically, witch hobble leaves turn a kind of burgandy color at the end of the summer:

But I found these lovely red ones...

... and these orange ones, too.

Hooray! Scat! This was deposited on a small mound in the trail. Probably coyote, since I think it was too large for a fox. (Wait 'til I get a photo of the monsterous bear scat I saw last night!)

These small purple "flowers" caught my eye. Each is less than an inch long, but their purple color stood out. What could it be? I immediately ran through the list of saprophytes I have seen: Indian pipes, beech drops, squawroot, putty root. Hm. I was leaning toward beechdrops, except there were no beeches growing in this part of the woods. Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) are parasites on the roots of beeches. I looked all around - sugar maples and a couple black cherries. No beeches. Could there be old, decaying beech roots underground in this spot?

As a whole, the "plant" isn't very attractive. It looks kind of like a dead twig.

The buds were very pretty, too. Who knew a parasite could be so lovely?

Here's a head-on view. It looks almost like it's been dipped in sugar.

I think this is the only time I've actually seen the fruit of the Indian cucumber root, and there's only one left.

Sure wish I knew what kind of mushroom this is! I was thinking Chicken of the Woods, but I don't think so. Any 'shroom experts out there, feel free to chime in. I had no luck with my mushroom book. It's pretty big - like, the size of my head.

The underside of this mushroom was very toothy, and a perfect candidate for a tripod. I'll come back with one sometime and try to get a better shot of the teeth.

Isn't this great? Here we have a witch hobble leaf in the process of emerging! So much for these being strictly next year's buds.

More turtleheads!

Here we have a Solomon's plume in fruit. It's hanging upside-down with dead leaves because the plant was snapped in two.

These were the only two dragonflies I could photograph. There were plenty of others out, but as they flew by, I could swear I heard them give me raspberries and taunt: nya-nya nya-nya nya nyaa!

I believe these are both yellowlegged meadowhawks, a female and male, respectively.

Turkeys! With the macro lens, this was the best I could do. Aren't the poults just so dinosaurish at this age? It's not only humans that make awkward teens.

A face only a mother could love? Can you imagine this fly 100 times larger than this? The stuff of nightmares! Check out the white claws on the feet, and those spines on the back. >

A Stroll on the Peninsula

Ahhhh - the temp is once more back to something resembling normal. Still, just so we don't get too cocky, it remains quite humid.

Because the weather was so much improved, I decided to hit the trails. It's been quite some time since I walked the Peninsula Trail, so that was my destination...

...by way of the parking lot (I had to get my tripod from the car). While in the parking lot, I decided to photograph a couple of the plants in the planter.

First up, we have common mullein (Verbascum thapsis). Not native, this tall spike of a plant is found in many of our "waste" areas. This one volunteered itself in our planter.


A syrphid fly was busily eating pollen.



A butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) also volunteered here. It is one of my favorite plants, probably because of its brilliant orange color.



The following are random images from various parts of the trails, in no particular order.

Polypody Fern

Shinleaf Pyrola (P. elliptica)

Rattlenake Plantain was just getting started.

I believe it's Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens).

Although the leaves seem rather less decorative than usual.

St. Johnswort was a surprise, but it found a gap in

the trees and was doing very well.

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentails) is only juuuust starting to bloom.

Dewdrop (Dalibarda repens) was blooming in profusion.

The roof of the gazebo is a hotbed of lichens!

Lichens on a rock.

Is this a rather revolting-looking mess or what? It looks like something vomited on the rock. They are, I believe, lichens, though.

It was a great day for mushrooms, too. We've had 3/4" of rain in the last two nights, so the mushrooms are thriving. My mushroom book is at home, though, so ID is limited until I get a chance to look 'em up.

Although I'm pretty sure these are lacquered polypores.

There was a whole line of them next to the trail.

I suspect they are growing on the decayed remains of a log.

I loved the shape of this one.

Had to take it's picutre twice!

And this one was just so colorful!

Did someone have a snack?

And another snack?

This is probably an amanita. Such a beautiful yellow.

And this is why many mushrooms look mangled.

It's a regular slugfest under there!

These little yellow fungi were just pushing out of the ground.

Next week I'll go out on the Sucker Brook and Sage Trails and see what's blooming/growing there.