It’s time again for many ferns to start their reproductive cycles and in this photo the tiny spore cases (sorus) of polypody fern (Polypodium virginianum) shine like beacons. Henry David Thoreau liked polypody ferns and said that “Fresh and cheerful communities of the polypody form a lustrous mantle over rocky surfaces in the early spring.” Of course they do exactly that and that’s how they come by the name rock cap fern. They’re an evergreen fern that loves to grow on boulders.
The tiny sori are made up of clusters of sporangia and are naked, meaning they lack the protective cap (indusium) that is found on many ferns. Each will turn a reddish brown color when ripe and ready to release its spores. The spores are as fine as dust and are borne on the wind. Sorus (plural of sori) is from the Greek word sōrós, and means stack, pile, or heap, and each sori is indeed a round pile of sporangia. As they begin to release spores the sorus are very pretty and look like tiny baskets of flowers. As of this photo it hadn’t happened yet.
We’re still having thunderstorms roll through and after each one passes I find a few more fungi, but nothing like the numbers I should be seeing. I thought this one might be the American Caesar’s mushroom (Amanita jacksonii) but it should be redder in color and the cap should have lined margins. Colors can vary but I wouldn’t think that the lined cap margin would, so in the end I don’t really know what it is. If you do I’d love to hear from you.
I put this tiny cluster of orange jelly baby fungi (Leotia lubrica) in an acorn cap so you could see how small they are. Once you train your eyes to see small things before long you’ll be able to see them everywhere and a whole new chapter in the book of nature will open for you. I have to retrain my eyes to see small things again each spring and I do that by visiting places where I know small flowers like spring beauty, red maple, and wild ginger grow. Your eyes adjust quite easily, I’ve found. Despite their name jelly babies are sac fungi rather than jelly fungi.
These spiny puffballs (Lycoperdon echinatum) were young when I found them and I know that because they were pure white and still had their spines. As they age the spines will fall off, leaving a brownish powdery coating on the surface. Eventually a small hole will appear at the top of the puffball and brownish purple spores will puff out through it whenever it is touched or stepped on.
There are young people out there who seem to think that inhaling certain puffball spores will get them high, but it is never a good thing to do. People who inhale the spores often end up in the hospital due to developing a respiratory disease called Lycoperdonosis. In one severe instance a teenager spent 18 days in a coma, had portions of his lung removed, and suffered severe liver damage.
These oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) were pure white and seemed to shine against the dark wood of the log. They’re usually found on logs in large clusters. These examples were young and no bigger than a quarter. Oyster mushrooms have off center stems that usually grow out of the side of the log and are hidden by the cap. They cause a white rot in living trees.
Mushrooms are often eaten by tiny worms called nematodes that live on plant and fungal tissue, but not oyster mushrooms. Scientists discovered in 1986 that oyster mushrooms “exude extracellular toxins that stun {nematode] worms, whereupon the mycelium invades its body through its orifices.” What this means is that oyster mushrooms are actually carnivorous. They also consume bacteria (Pseudomonas and Agrobacterium) in order to get nitrogen and protein.
I’m seeing a lot more great blue herons this year than I did last year. The one in the above photo was happy to stand like a statue, up to his knees in the Ashuelot river. I hoped it would do something interesting but in the end its patience outlasted mine.
I’m sure the heron would have loved to have met this spring peeper, but luckily the little frog was off in the forest near a pond. The dark colored X shaped marking on its back and the dark bar on its head from eyes to eye make this frog easy to identify. Spring peepers are tiny things that are usually less than an inch and a half long and experts at camouflage, so I don’t see them often. I love them because they are the heralds of spring; few things are more pleasing to these ears than hearing their song on the first warm March evening.
I’m happy to be seeing quite a lot of bees this year. This bumblebee foraged on a Joe Pye weed flower head one day.
I was kneeling, trying to get that perfect shot of a flower when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I watched for a while, fascinated as an orb weaver spider wove its web, before remembering that I had a camera. It was quite big as spiders go and easily seen but the camera had trouble with the details, so I had to move in closer. When I did it retreated to its home under a fern frond, so this was the only useable shot I got. It had very furry legs and a bright red body.
There is an insect called the oak leaf skeletonizer but it eats only the soft tissue on the upper side of an oak leaf, leaving it translucent The damage to the oak leaf in the above photo was most likely caused by a caterpillar. It ate the soft tissue on both sides of the leaf, leaving only the veins behind. I’m guessing that the beautiful white hickory tussock moth caterpillar was the culprit. It feeds on nut trees, including oaks.
Speaking of oaks, they’re shedding their leaves regularly now due to the drought. They and other trees like apples and hickory nuts are shedding their fruit as well, trying to conserve energy. Wild blueberries, raspberries and blackberries have also been in distress and many are small and deformed. Some animals might have a hard time of it, but it’s too early to tell.
The leaves of tall meadow rue (Thalictrum pubescens) often change color early on. These became a beautiful purple; as beautiful as any flower. In spring before it blossoms meadow rue is often mistaken for columbine because its leaves look similar. It is also called king of the meadow due to its great height. I’ve seen plants reach more than 8 feet tall in optimal conditions.
In some places bracken ferns (Pteridium aquilinum) have already dried out and gone to orange. Bracken is one of the oldest ferns; fossils date it to over 55 million years old. The plant releases chemicals which inhibit the growth of other plants and that is why large colonies of nothing but bracken fern are found. Some Native American tribes cooked and peeled the roots of bracken fern to use as food but modern science has found that all parts of the plant contain carcinogens.
Invasive Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) berries can be red or orange but I seldom see the orange ones and I wonder if that might be because they ripen from green to orange to red. This shrub is native to Siberia and is very tough; our drought doesn’t seem to have affected any of the plants I’ve seen. Birds love its berries and that’s why it has been so successful. In this area there are very few places where it doesn’t grow. Tatarian honeysuckle was introduced as an ornamental shrub in the 1750s. It has deep pink, very fragrant flowers in spring. Though it is invasive it has been here so long that it’s hard to imagine life without it.
Hobblebush berries (drupes) turn dark purple when they’re fully ripe but I like seeing them when they’re in the red stage as they are here. Anyhow, I rarely see them in the purple, ripe stage because birds and animals eat them up so fast. Among the birds cardinals, turkeys, cedar waxwings and even pileated woodpeckers are known to eat the fruit. Bears, foxes, skunks and squirrels are among the animals that eat them, so there is a lot of competition. It’s no wonder I rarely see them ripe. The fruit is edible and is said to taste like clove spiced raisins or dates but the seeds are large and the flesh thin. They can be eaten raw or cooked and are said to taste better after a frost. Native Americans had several medicinal uses for hobblebush, from curing headaches to chest and breathing problems, and they also ate the berries.
Why pay attention to the little things? If the beauty of this smoky eye boulder lichen (Porpidia albocaerulescens) doesn’t answer that question, then nothing ever will.
There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it. ~Charlotte Eriksson
Thanks for coming by.
I love it when I find a skeletonised leaf. It’s a rare thing but they really are so beautiful.
I’m seeing piles of them here this year, so the bugs are hungry.
Great photos as always. Fascinating views of the orb weaver and fern sori.
Thanks!
Thank you for training your eye, and your camera, on the tiny world out there. It’s amazing to see all the things that regularly escape my eye.
You’re welcome Judy, and thank you. Small things are easy to miss!
Sorry to hear you are still in drought. It hit 105 here yesterday in my part of western Oregon. Our normal dry season is getting hotter.
Always loved polypody type ferns. I have a bear’s foot fern in a pot in here that came up from spore. The original plant was about 27 years old and quite large when I had to give it up and leave it with a fern fancier when we moved west.
The photos of the many and varied residents of the Kingdom of Lilliput are always beautiful to behold. The smoke eye lichen is a good example. A beautiful post, Allen.
Thank you Lavinia. It sounds as if this is the hottest year on record and both coasts are sweltering. The humidity here this summer has been memorable.
I’ve never heard of anyone raising a fern from a spore but why not! I’ve never grown a bear’s foot fern. It reminds me of the bird’s nest fern.
Reblogged this on Strafford County Master Gardener Association.
Thank you.
I am sorry your drought still hasn’t broken – I never like to see shrivelled leaves and berries at this time of year and wonder like you, if the wildlife will have a hard time of it in the winter. A really varied selection of photographs and plenty of interesting facts – the shot of the fern sori and the smokey eye boulder lichen are wonderful!
Thank you Clare. I’ve never seen it this dry and there isn’t any real rain in sight, so drought is becoming the topic of conversation everywhere I go, it seems. Farmers sure are having a rough time of it and the larger animals might be in for a hard winter.
The fern sori and lichen are good examples of what many people miss out there, so I like to add them as an enticement to get outside!
A good ruse!
I hope it works!
Beautiful photos, so nice to wander with you today. 🙂
Thank you Eliza!
You are putting ever more interesting delights in front of us. Thank you.
You’re welcome. I see them everywhere.
Fantastic selection of photos followed by very interesting facts. You are right about looking at small things, I shall practice it more.
Thank you. You’ll be amazed by what you see!
Your photographic expertise continues to impress me.
Thank you Ben. It’s all in the camera. The better it is the better they are.
No, that’s only part of it surely.:)
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
Thanks very much!
You’re very welcome, Allen. Happy Weekend ahead. Namaste
Another of your posts where I was so wowed by the last photo of the smoky eye boulder lichen that I’ve had to scroll through the entire post several times to absorb it all!
You’ve gotten so many wonderful things in this one, from the spring peeper to the spider. I’m always amazed at how aware of us spiders can be when we try to get close to them, you have to stalk them like any other critter. That’s hard to do since they live in such a small world, and I usually fail. I’m glad that you didn’t.
Some of our ferns are beginning to turn brown, and despite the number of times that I’ve seen the spore cases on various ferns here, I always forget to look under the leaves for them. Maybe it’s because I’m looking up watching for eagles. 😉
If the rain that we’ve had here the past few days reaches you, you’ll have plenty of fungi soon. I haven’t seen many this summer because we’ve had cycles of drought, then near monsoon rains, and back to drought again. I’ll have to remember to look this weekend.
Thanks Jerry, sorry I made you do so much scrolling!
Spiders aren’t easy to get a good shot of, I agree. That’s why you rarely see them here. It must be all those eyes.
Yes, it’s hard to watch plants and birds at the same time. I’ve tried and tripped myself up. I spend so much time looking at the ground the Goodyear blimp could fly over me and I probably wouldn’t even know it.
We’ve had some rain but no drought busters, unfortunately. I’ve seen quite a few mushrooms since we had rain Saturday, but nothing too photogenic. I guess it’ll happen when it’s ready!
Heron’s can test the patience of any photographer! I know I’ve given up many times waiting for them to do something. Fish and Game recently sent out a warning email about bears. Apparently they are going into yards and gardens because the berries aren’t plentiful enough for the fat stores they need.
Yes, we can learn a lot about patience from herons but after about 15 minutes of watching one be a statue, I’ve had enough!
I heard about the bear warning but they also said that it’s common for that to happen most years as the bears wait for the berries to ripen. I hope they find enough to eat!
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
The things I learn from this blog.
Thank you John. I learn a lot from doing this kind of post too.
You have put together a particularly artistic set of photographs, I also enjoyed the quotation.
Thank you Susan. I hope people will heed the message in that quote.