Here are some more of those sometimes odd, often beautiful, and always interesting things that I see in the woods.
It’s interesting how nature seems to use the same shapes over and over again in different ways. The round fruiting cups, called apothecia, of the Poplar Sunburst Lichen (Xanthoria hasseana) remind me of the suckers on an octopus or squid. Instead of latching onto things however, this lichen uses its cups for spore production. To give you a sense of scale-the largest of those in the photo is about an eighth of an inch across. The entire lichen might have been an inch and a half across.
This lichen had me stumped for a while because I thought that beard lichens only grew on trees, and it was growing on stone. One bristly lichen that does grow on stones is called rock bushy lichen (Ramalina intermedia) but it has flattened branches that resemble noodles, and the one in the photo has round branches. I went back to re-visit it the other day and found that, though it was perched on a large boulder, there was soil on the boulder. That fact led me to discover a lichen new to me-the many forked cladonia (Cladonia furcata,) which grows on soil or stone. It is eaten by elk and reindeer in northern latitudes. This is the only example of it in this area that I know of.
I went through most of my life ignoring liverworts, but after seeing one or two of them now I see them everywhere. The one in the photo is the common liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha.) It can often be found growing in nursery pots as a weed, but I found this one by a stream. This is also called the umbrella liverwort, because male plants have reproductive structures (Antheridiophores) that look like the ribs of an umbrella. They remind me of palm trees.
Sometimes I like to take a photo of something I see just because I find it interesting or beautiful, without worrying about its name or how and why it grows the way that it does. That’s all that this photo of orange / brown mushroom gills is.
Sometimes mushrooms are as interesting dead as they are alive. Sometimes even more so.
Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) stems and berries add color to the landscape. I got to these before the birds did. A paper titled “The dissemination of Virginia Creeper Seeds by English Sparrows” by Bartle T. Harvey describes how the author found 70 Virginia creeper seedlings in fifty square feet of ground under a known English sparrow roost in Colorado.
I think these mushrooms might be jack ‘o lantern mushrooms (Omphalotus illudens,) which are orange and fruit in late fall in clusters on wood. If I could see them at night I’d know for sure, because through bio-luminescence this mushroom’s gills glow in the dark. It is said that they glow an eerie green color and work in much the same way that fireflies do. They are also very toxic.
This photo of glowing jack o’ lantern mushrooms is from Wikipedia. Only the gills glow, even though it looks as if the entire mushroom does.
More orange can be found in the forest in the form of orange jelly fungus (Dacrymyces palmatus.) These are very common but I see more of them at this time of year than I do in warmer months.
Hobblebushes (Viburnum lantanoides) have already grown their spring leaves and they will remain this way, naked and unprotected, throughout the winter months. I got a good lesson on why they are called hobblebush recently when my feet got tangled in the ground hugging branches. They hobbled me and I went down fast and hard. Luckily there were no stones there to fall on-a miracle in the Granite State.
Another viburnum, maple leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), has leaves that turn to just about every fall color , including deep purple, before they finally fade to an almost imperceptible pastel pink before falling to the ground.
This is an example of just some of the colors that can be found on maple leaf viburnums.
The few larch trees (Larix) went out in a blaze of color. Larches lose their needles from the bottom up. It is our only conifer that loses all of its needles in the fall.
The shrubs along the river have lost their leaves. The few yellow leaves that appear here and there are on bittersweet vines.
If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable. ~Rainer Maria Rilke
Thanks for coming by.
That first closeup of the lichen is amazing. I also really like the one of the mushroom gills is also great, you must have gotten into a really uncomfortable crouch for that one.
Thanks! Someone (or something) had knocked that mushroom over before I found it but yes, you have to be willing to get face down in the dirt to get a lot of these shots. Getting back up again is usually the toughest part of the process theses days.
I think the mushrooms may be my favourites. There are some small orange mushrooms growing on the wood hips near my office, your post made me want to go over there at night to see if they were glowing.
Thanks! Maybe you should go and see. That would make for an unique post.
Alan, number 4 photo of the underside is stunning. Your photography just gets better all the time!
Thanks Martha. I’ve been trying to use a tripod more, so the photos should be a little sharper.
So many of the things you are seeing have wonderful visual appeal and interesting lives!
I think so too, and I guess that’s why I look for them.
I can’t but regret the many years of my life when I paid insufficient attention to fungi and lichen and liverworts. I am making up for this vicariously through reading your excellent posts now though.
Thank you. I know how you feel. I’ve been interested in mushrooms for a long time, but I too paid little attention to lichens, mosses and liverworts. We can’t study everything though, so we have to pick and choose.
Your pictures and script get better and better!
Thank you. I’m glad that I’m achieving my goals.
I love the idea of bioluminescent fungi!
Me too. I’d really like to see it in person in the woods.
Such interesting things you see. Bioluminescent fungi, that’s a new one to me, so I had to google it. There are suggestions on Wikipedia that the luminescence is protective and/or makes the fungus attractive to its consumers that would help spread the spores. Amazing!!
I agree Sue, it is amazing. In fact, all of nature is pretty amazing! I didn’t know they glowed in the dark until I tried identifying them.
Namaste NHGS,
Beautiful photography – you’ve such wonderful talents. I enjoy the different textures and colors up close. Very interesting post.
Wishing you a blessed week.
Reiki blessings,
Agnes
Thank you Agnes. I wish you the same.
Another fine collection, Allen…and a most fitting quote, as well.
Thanks Scott. I’ve used so many nature quotes here that new ones are becoming harder to find. I really liked this one.
You’re welcome…and it was a good choice.
Wow! Glow in the dark mushrooms, I had never heard of that before. If I saw them glowing, I would assume that the glow came from an algae or some other tiny lifeform living on the mushroom.
I often see English sparrows under dense mats of Virginia creeper hanging from trees, I thought that the sparrows used the vines as cover, I never thought about them eating the berries.
Great post, but yours always are!
Thanks Jerry! Just when you think you’ve heard everything nature says “now wait just a minute!” I wish I could find some of those glowing mushrooms at night, but stumbling around in the woods in the dark is probably not a good idea. I have a hard enough time when the sun is shining.
I didn’t even know we had English sparrows here until I started this post. Apparently “house sparrow” is the term more frequently used. It sounds like they’ll do just about anything for Virginia creeper berries.
Enjoyed your post! During a recent trip to the mountains of North Carolina we discovered many types of fungi that were new to us. Some had multiple fingerlike structures that we had never seen before.
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Your trip to North Carolina sounds like the kind of trip that really gets my heart beating! Could the finger like mushrooms have been dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) or some type of coral fungi?
The mushroom gill photo is exceptional! I love it!! At first glance, the hobble bush leaves looked like a pair of bunny ears or an antler in velvet. If the good weather holds, you’ll still be finding great things on your walks for a while!
Thanks Laura. I’m hoping for two inches of snow on Christmas eve and then sunny skies until March.
Hear! Hear! Works for me!!!!
Fascinating living things and tidbits of intriguing facts make your posts a joy to read. I really like your shot of the umbrella liverwort. Your first photo reminds me of the arrows with suction cups that we used to shoot when I was a kid. They are probably banned now as too dangerous for children to play with.
Thanks Mike. I haven’t thought of those suction cup arrows in a long time. They probably are banned, but they’re also so low tech that I wonder if kids would even want to play with them these days.
A while ago I mentioned the liverwort growing in my pot palm and it looks identical to the one you show. So now I know it came from the nursery rather than invading the pot naturally. Thanks for clearing that up.
I love the glowing fungi. I feel a night trip coming on to go and see some stinkhorns that I know of (they also glow in the dark).
It makes sense that your liverwort would be this one Jim-for some reason it loves growing in nursery pots. I can remember having to weed it out of hundreds of them! I can’t wait to see your photos of glowing stinkhorns. That would really be something to see.
I’m going to have to disappoint you Allan. I’ve just checked the place out and all the stinkhorns are gone now.
Oh well, chances are they’ll be back next year. Something to look forward to!