The above photo makes me feel that I should say good morning, so please consider it done. I saw this scene on my way to work one morning but since I don’t bring the camera that I use for landscape photos to work with me, I had to use my cellphone. It was a cold morning but the pastel sky was plenty beautiful enough to stop and gaze at. My color finding software tells me it was colored peach puff, papaya whip, and Alice blue. How bare the trees are becoming.
The swamp dewberries (Rubus hispidus) are certainly colorful this year. In June this trailing vine blooms with white flowers that look a lot like strawberry flowers. The fruit looks more like a black raspberry than anything else and is said to be very sour. Native Americans had many medicinal uses for this plant, including treating coughs, fever and consumption. Swamp dewberry, as its name implies, is a good indicator of a wetland or moist soil that doesn’t dry out.
Some of the smaller oaks are hanging on to their leaves but they’re dropping quickly from the larger trees now.
Jack frost has come knocking. These crystals grew on my windshield overnight and though I wasn’t happy about the cold that made them I was happy to see them, because I love looking at the many shapes that frost crystals form in.
Frost had found these mushrooms and turned them to purple jelly. I’m not sure what they started life as.
Frost rimmed the edges of these wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) leaves too. There is a lot of beauty to be found in the colder months.
At this time of year I always start rolling logs over, hoping to find the beautiful but rare cobalt crust fungus (Terana caerulea,) but usually I find this lighter shade of blue instead. After several years of trying to identify this fungus I’ve finally found a name for it: Byssocorticium atrovirens. Apparently its common name is simply blue crust fungus, which is good because that’s what I’ve been calling it. Crust fungi are called resupinate fungi and have flat, crust like fruiting bodies which usually appear on the undersides of fallen branches and logs. Resupinate means upside down, and that’s what many crust fungi appear to be. Their spore bearing surface can be wrinkled, smooth, warty, toothed, or porous and though they appear on the undersides of logs the main body of the fungus is in the wood, slowly decomposing it. They seem to be the least understood of all the fungi.
While rolling logs over to look for blue crust fungi I found these mosses that had been blanched almost white from having no sunlight reach them. They reminded me of something I’d see on a coral reef under the sea. I’m guessing that they originally grew on the tree in sunlight before it fell, and when it fell they ended up on the underside of the log. The odd part is how they continued to grow even with no sun light. That urge inside of plants that makes them reach for light must be very strong indeed.
We seem to be having weekly rainy days now and the drought’s grip on the land is slowly easing. One showery day at about 1:00 pm a sun beam peeked through the clouds just long enough and in just the right spot to light up Mount Skatutakee in Hancock. I always trust that sunbeams falling in a concentrated area like this will show me something interesting because they always have, so now I’m going to have to climb Mount Skatutakee. From what I’ve heard it takes 4 hours but at my pace it will most likely take 6 or more; I’m sure there will be lots of wonders to see. The name Skatutakee is pronounced Skuh – TOO -tuh – kee and is said to come from two Native American Abenaki words that mean “land” and “fire,” so there might have once been a forest fire there. It certainly looked like it was burning on this day.
We can’t see the wind but we can often see what it has done. In this case it blew a dead plant stalk around in a complete circle and the stalk marked the river sand as it twirled around and around. It’s one of the more unusual things I’ve seen lately.
I don’t see many stinkhorn fungi and I’ve wondered if that was because I wasn’t looking in the right place. This example was sticking out of a very old and very rotted yellow birch log. It is the common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) and I have to say that, even though stinkhorns are said to have an odor like rotting meat, I didn’t smell a thing when I was taking its photo. The green conical cap is also said to be slimy but it didn’t look it. This mushroom uses its carrion like odor to attracts insects, which are said to disperse its sticky spores.
It’s friend took a turn. Whether it was for the better or worse I don’t know. The old birch log it was on must have had 8-10 different kinds of mushrooms growing on it.
False turkey tail fungus (Stereum ostrea) looks a lot like true turkey tail fungus (Trametes versicolor) but it doesn’t have pores on its underside and I find that it often comes in shades of orange. It always helps to look at the underside of fungi when trying to identify them.
Eastern larch trees, also called tamarack larch or just tamarack, (Larix laricina) turn brilliant orange yellow in the fall and are one of the few conifers that shed their needles in winter. They like to grow in wet, swampy places and seeds that fall on dry ground usually won’t germinate. Tamarack was an important tree to Native Americans; some used branches and bark to make snow shoes and others used the bark from the roots to sew canoes. The Ojibwe people called the tree “muckigwatig,” meaning “swamp tree” and used parts of it to make medicine.
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) is a native evergreen with small, heart shaped leaves on creeping stems which grow at ground level. In spring it has white trumpet shaped flowers that grow in pairs and share a single ovary. In the fall it has bright red berries which are edible but close to tasteless. I leave them for the turkeys, which seem to love them. Bobwhites, grouse, red foxes, skunks, and white-footed mice are also said to eat them.
The unusual fused ovary on the partridgeberry’s twin blossoms form one berry, and you can always see where the two flowers were by looking for the dimples on the berry.
Poison ivy berries are ripening to white but until I saw this photo I didn’t know how it happened. It looks as if there is a brown shell around each white berry, and it looks as if the shell falls away to reveal it. Many songbirds eat the white berries, and deer eat the plant’s leaves. In fact there doesn’t seem to be an animal or bird that the plant bothers, but it sure bothers most humans by causing an always itchy, sometimes painful, and rarely dangerous rash. I get the rash every year but I’m lucky that it stays on the part of my body that touched the plant and doesn’t spread. That usually means a hand, knee, or ankle will itch for a week.
An oak leaf had fallen with an apple gall still attached. Apple galls are caused by a wasp (Amphibolips confluenta) called the oak apple gall wasp. In May, the female wasp emerges from underground and injects one or more eggs into the mid-vein of an oak leaf. As it grows the wasp larva causes the leaf to form a round gall. Galls that form on leaves are less harmful to the tree than those that form on twigs, but neither causes any real damage.
Both the leaf and gall together weighed next to nothing and the hole in the gall told me that the resident wasp had most likely flown the coop.
I don’t know its name but the hill on the other side of half-moon pond in Hancock still shows a little color. Even so, fall is nearly over now. We’ve had frosts, freezes and were lucky enough to have Indian summer twice and though we rarely talk about it we all know what comes next in the natural progression of the 4 seasons. But it’s only for 3 months, and the weather people now tell us that it will be “normal.”
Every corny thing that’s said about living with nature – being in harmony with the earth, feeling the cycle of the seasons – happens to be true. ~Susan Orlean
Thanks for coming by.
Beautiful late autumn views of the eastern woodlands, Allen. I love that sand painting done by the plant stalk. Nice capture! And that is a very lovely gift old Jack Frost left for you. He hasn’t been here yet, although he has come close a few times now. I suspect he will make an entrance in early December. It has been a most unusual weather year.
Thank you Lavinia. It has gotten noticeably colder here today and we saw some snow flurries but they didn’t amount to anything. The weather has been strange here too and everyone is wondering what winter will be like. Since I work outside I’m hoping it’s mild!
Love the photo of the two oak leaves. That moss looks like a sea anemone – remarkable.
Thank you, I agree.
Have to keep going back to look at this post. Wonderful finds. A pleasure…
Thank you Grampy!
The colours, textures and shapes in this collection almost make me wish I was up there rather than down under in sub-tropical Queensland. We are moving into a hot stormy summer of threatening bushfires and you are slamming into winter. Enjoy. You have a wonderful rich blog. I love your photos, especially the resupinate fungus! Blue! I hope you find the cobalt one day. And those apple galls like Christmas baubles! Thank-you.
Thank you very much. I’m happy that you enjoy the beauty found on this side of the planet.
I know that your side is very beautiful as well, and I envy you your summer weather. I hope you don’t see too many brushfires. We’ve had quite a few here recently due to drought.
I found the cobalt crust fungus a couple of years ago and I’ve looked for another ever since, with no luck. It’s out there somewhere though and I’ll keep looking!
Extremely nice images Allen. I love the ice crystals and the good morning shot. Both look quite wintery to me! The photos of leaves, both the autumn shades ones and the frost-rimmed ones are very fine.
Thanks very much Clare. The weather has been really up and down here, with cold one day and warmth the next. Since I work outside it’s been hard to know what kind of weather to dress for.
Luckily there are always plenty of beautiful things to see no matter what the weather.
We have similar weather here, it being wet and mild at present but due to get colder again very soon. It must be awkward not knowing what to wear each day. I seem to be cold all the time at the moment no matter what the weather.
It is awkward. I usually dress for cold and then have to carry home a pile of clothes that I didn’t need to wear.
You do get used to the cold and we can actually take quite a lot of it but I hope you’ll have some warm sunny days ahead so you don’t have to.
Me too! My husband thinks I’m cold-blooded because I’m never warm even in the summer!
Maybe it’s poor circulation?
Yes it probably is. I have rheumatoid arthritis which means I take a while to get going in the morning and can’t move around as quickly as I’d like. I’m used to it though and wear lots of layers and when my husband isn’t watching I turn the thermostat up on the central heating! 😀
I’m sorry to hear that. I worked as a gardener for a very nice lady who had the same, and she had a hard time of it some times.
I don’t blame you for turning the heat up, and I doubt your husband does either. I think we deserve to be comfortable in our own homes. Most of us have worked hard for the privilege!
How kind, thank-you!
You’re welcome!
I look forward to your new mountain adventure and hops that it comes soon.
Thank you. I don’t know if I’ll beat old man winter this year but Mount Skatutakee is on my list.
Aha! Maybe I can provide you with some information this time. The stinkhorn fungi is very common here, mostly in the mulch used in places. It goes through several phases as it grows, it’s only stinky and slimy when it’s fully mature, the ones you saw must have just pooped above the ground not long ago. It does attract flies when it’s mature.
Loved the light on Mount Skatutakee, if I saw something like that, I’d be prompted to investigate further too.
The still life photo of the swamp dewberries was also excellent, I loved all the colors in that image.
I would have thought that the mosses that had been under a log would have died, you’re right, the power of life is something to be found in everything.
Thanks Jerry! I’m glad you’re so familiar with stinkhorns and I appreciate the help. I hardly ever see them but I know where there are plenty of wood chips so I’ll have to watch for them.
I’m going to have to climb Mount Skatutakee, but I don’t know if it’ll be this year. Winter is closing in!
I was really surprised by those mosses. I left their log rolled over so they could get some sunlight so I’d bet that they’re green by now.
Terrific photos! Looks like this year our weather is much warmer than your. I liked the frost photo: we haven’t even had a good frost yet.
Thanks Montucky! Wow, I’m surprised. We’ve had several frosts and freezes and even snow in the higher elevations. I hope you’ll get a good snow pack this year to help ease the drought.
Thank you for all your beautiful pictures and comments. I love reading everything.
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Thanks very much Pam, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
For the first time ever this year, I had stinkhorns in my yard. The stalks were bright orange, and the caps a dark olive green. I can attest to their rotten smell!
This post makes me want to roll some logs and find that cobalt blue fungus!
Thank you Judy. That cobalt crust fungus is rare and beautiful enough to have me rolling logs!
It sounds like you had the elegant stinkhorn (Mutinus elegans) rather than the common one. They have red or orange stalks. I’d love to see one!
Be happy to send you a photo of mine, although you’ve probably seen plenty of photos. I was amazed when they popped up everywhere in my yard this year – had never seen them before.
Thank you but yes, I have seen and admired many photos of them. I’ve heard that they like to grow in wood chips like mulch, and in humus.
You have seen a lot of beauty ♥
Yes, there’s much to see!
Allen, I have a big smile on my face reading this post! Thank you for the lovely photos and descriptions. The one of Mount Skatutakee is fantastic and the galls are beautiful!
Thank you Paula. There’s still a lot to see out there!
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Thank you John.
Quite a feast for us today. Thank you.
You’re welcome Ben.
I Loved your ‘good morning’ picture and the plant I liked best was the partridgeberry especially the picture with its leaves.
Thank you Susan. Partridgeberry is a pretty little plant. It’s leaves always remind me of hammered metal.