We have been wet here lately, but have seen more liquid than the white fluffy variety. Still, our local weatherman is hinting at big changes coming next week so we may see some snow before Christmas. Or maybe not-the Weather Channel is saying rain.
It’s getting harder to find the sun lately and the forests look like the one in the picture on most days. Though it’s easy to think that not much is going on in the cold and damp December woods, nothing could be further from the truth-there is still a lot of nature happening.
One of the nice things about this time of year is that you can see the bones of the forest. If all of the underbrush still had leaves I never would have seen this twisted, mossy log.
Though it’s not the prettiest aster I’ve seen, this one was still blooming on December 3rd.
This pinkish brown mushroom was trying hard on the same day.
I’ve read that jelly fungi like witch’s butter can absorb so much water when it rains that they turn white. I wondered if the same thing was happening to these- what I think are- fan shaped jelly fungi (Dacryopinax spathularia.)
Some people say that the leaflets (Pinna) of the evergreen Christmas fern ( Polystichum acrostichoides) look like little Christmas stockings. You can see why if you look at the leaflet just to the right of the gap, and right up near the stem in the photo. Each leaflet has a little bump or “ear.” This is the only fern in the New Hampshire woods with this feature, so it makes a Christmas fern very easy to identify. The short leaf stems (petioles,) serrated leaflet margins, and hairy central stem are other things to watch for when looking for this fern.
Lichens are also very easy to see at this time of year but some, like these pixie cup lichens (Cladonia pyxidata,) are small enough to still make them challenging to find. A single drop of water would be far too big to fit into one of these little cups.
Lichens dry out quickly when it is dry but plump right back up again when it rains, as this foliose lichen shows. It had been drizzling steadily for two days when I took this picture. I haven’t been able to find this lichen in any lichen books or online.
I’ve never seen this orange-brown crustose lichen before and can’t find anything like it in Lichens of the North Woods.
I’m seeing turkey tail fungi (Trametes versicolor) that are more colorful than those I saw just a month ago. Blue is a hard color to find in nature so the different blues in these examples really caught my eye. I still have a feeling that cold weather has something to do with their color. They seem to be brown/tan in early fall and then as the temperature drops they get more colorful. Of course, it could be that I’m just seeing both brown/tan and colorful varieties. I’ve got to find one example that is easy to get to and watch it over several months.
The much more common brown turkey tails and lemon drop jelly fungi (Bisporella citrina) decorated the end of this log.
White cushion moss (Leucobryum glaucum) isn’t really white but it does form a cushion. It can also form large mats, but the ball shape shown in the photo is more common. This moss needs plenty of shade and water.
It’s not just growing things that are interesting. I liked the color and shape of this dead mushroom.
This is something I don’t see in the woods every day; when they were much younger than they are now somebody wove these three beech (Fagus) seedlings together. As they grew and finally touched, they rubbed against each other in the wind until the bark had rubbed away. Now they have grown together through inosculation, which is a natural process very similar to the grafting done in orchards. One day they may grow into a single, twisted trunk.
People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy ~Anton Chekhov
Thanks for stopping by.
A great post, a great day, and great information! It will take me a while to catch up on all your posts of late, but I will do it, there’s too much that I would miss otherwise.
Thanks Jerry. I’m glad you enjoy them so much.
Great collection of finds!
Thanks!
Looks like you had a wonderful hike. I enjoyed it too. Thanks
Thank you. I’m glad you came along.
I still haven’t seen any of those turkey-tail fungi out here, but they are very pretty…and I love the first photo of the cloudy/misty woods…very nice, Allen.
Thanks Scott. I’m surprised that you didn’t see any in Ferguson Canyon that you took us to a post or two ago. That’s just the kind of place where they hang out. I’ve read that they grow in “nearly” every state in the country-maybe Utah is one of the few where they don’t. Apparently Montana is another one because I think Montucky said he hasn’t seen any there either.
That’s an easy way to id the Christmas fern. I’ve been seeing some green ferns in the woods and wondering what they were, but now I know what they are not! I’ll have to consult my field guides.
I don’t know why I didn’t think to point that out about the Christmas fern earlier! You might be seeing the evergreen intermediate wood fern (Dryopteris intermedia) or one of the polypody ferns (Polypodiaceae.) Polypody ferns are easy to identify because they almost always grow on top of rocks and boulders, which gives them the common name of rockcap fern. Sometimes they look like they’re growing on the ground when they’re really growing on a buried stone.
I drove down a road in a cutting a few days ago which always has plenty of michaelmas daisies (wild asters) growing on the verge. Those on the south-west facing bank were just brown dry stems now but those facing north-east were still in bloom, albeit a bit tatty. Could it be the case with “your” aster that its flowering had been held back by an unfavourable location?
Actually James, now that you mention it, this aster was facing due north. That’s very interesting and something I hadn’t thought of. It’s also kind of counter intuitive-you would think that the plant would be warmer with a southern exposure and bloom longer because of it. Thanks for pondering something that I hadn’t!
You have never failed to find such interesting things to show us. It must be much wetter in NH then MN, because I took a walk before the last big snowstorm and failed to fine even large fungi to photograph. The woods were really dry with crunchy leaves (not good for stalking wildlife).
The woods are so full of interesting things that someone could spend a lifetime trying to show and explain them all. But I’m sure you know that Sue. It has been pretty wet here but mostly drizzle and fog-no real downpours or snowstorms.
Great post, it’s good that you go into the woods all year round. It is interesting to watch the change in nature, and you do get out there and capture those changes!
You found a wildflower still blooming, even if they do look pretty rough. I found Hoary Alysum blooming yesterday, December 11, in 31 degrees.
The Christmas fern tidbit, with each leaflet having one “ear”, I will be looking for those ears.
Your Turkey tail fungi are always so colorful.
The twisted trees growing together through inosculation, very curious.
This post was a nice start to the day, thanks.
🙂
You’re welcome! It is really interesting to watch how the forest changes through the seasons. You must still be fairly warm too if you still have Hoary Alyssum blooming. Those colorful turkey tails don’t come easy-it takes a lot of walking to find them because the real colorful ones are scarce.