There is a small stream near my house that I like to visit at least once in winter and I did so recently. Right now it looks lazy and placid, but I’ve seen it rise overnight into a raging, road eating thing that easily covered everything in this photo except the trees. Its name is Bailey Brook, I just found out the night before posting this, but according to the Maine Geological Survey a brook is just a small stream. On the other hand a stream is a small river or brook, so I’m just going to keep calling it a stream.
One reason I like to come here is to see my old friends the tree mosses (Climacium dendroides.) They’re beautiful little mosses that I never see anywhere else. They must like very wet soil because they grow right at the edge of the stream and are covered by water when the stream floods. In fact all of the plants you’ll see in this post are under water for at least a day or two each year. It is their shape that gives tree mosses their common name but it is their inner light that draws me back here to see them.
Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) is probably the most common of our evergreen ferns. When seen at this time of year it is obvious that it has had its branches flattened by the weight of the snow because they splay out all over the ground. When the new fronds, or fiddleheads, appear in spring the previous season’s fronds turn yellow and then finally brown. The dead fronds then form a mat around the living fern that helps prevent soil erosion. This is a fern that doesn’t mind wet soil.
Christmas fern is easy to identify by its leaflets that resemble little Christmas stockings. The narrow fine teeth that line the edges of the leaflets and the short leaf stalks can also be seen in this photo. It is said to be called Christmas fern because early settlers brought the green fronds inside at Christmas.
Marginal wood fern (Dryopteris marginalis) is another evergreen fern that also grows well here because it likes damp, shady places. Its spore bearing sori grow on the edges of the leaves and give this fern its common name. The sori are covered by a kidney shaped cap (indusium,) which is smooth. The cap comes off just when the spores are ready to be released, as it has done on at least two of these examples.
The sticky sap from a white pine (Pinus strobus) had dripped on the upper part of the marginal wood fern’s frond. I decided to show it to you so you could see how white pine sap turns blue when it’s cold.
An orange jelly fungus (Dacrymyces palmatus) was drying out and had lost its transparency. Jelly fungi can absorb many times their own weight is water but when they begin to dry out they can shrink down to a hard dry chip the size of a toddler’s fingernail.
I saw a fallen branch with some familiar looking growths on it, so I looked a little closer.
The branch growths had me believing they were slime molds for a minute or two. They looked a lot like a slime mold called Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa v. porioides, which looks like tiny geodesic domes and loves to grow on rotting wood. But something wasn’t right; they were a little too big and they weren’t bright white like Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa. Them my right hand found something cold and jelly like on the branch.
I think what my hand found was a milk white toothed polypore (Irpex lacteus.) This is a “winter” fungus that can appear quite late in the year. It is also a resupinate fungus, which means it looks like it grows upside down, and that’s what many crust fungi seem to do. 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. This is the first time I’ve seen the “birth” of this fungus.
I saw an awful lot of fungi for a January day. I’m not sure what this one was but it was pleasing to the eye and reminded me of spring, and that was enough.
Artist’s conk (Ganoderma applanatum) grew on an old oak and wasn’t hard to identify. This bracket fungus gets its name from its smooth white underside, which is perfect for drawing on. Any scratch made on the pure white surface becomes brown and will last for many years. I drew a farm scene on one more than 30 years ago and I still have it.
Artist’s conks are perennial fungi that get bigger each year. Older examples can be up to two feet across, but this one was closer to half that. I put my Olympus camera on it to give you an idea of how big it was. This fungus causes heart rot in a wide variety of tree species, so this living tree is doomed.
Horsetails (Equisetum hyemale) rise like spikes from the forest floor. These ancient plants are embedded with silica and are called scouring rushes. They are a great find when you are camping along a stream because you can use them to scour your cooking utensils. Running your finger over a stalk feels much like fine sandpaper.
In Japan horsetails are boiled and dried and then used to smooth wood, and are said to produce a finish superior to any sandpaper. Horsetails produce spores in their cone shaped tips, but the examples in this spot rarely grow them. I think the stripes on them will always remind me of socks.
This tree is full of insects, probably carpenter ants, and the pileated woodpecker that made these holes knew it. Pileated woodpecker holes are almost always rectangular and very big compared to other woodpecker holes. These were quite deep as well.
Pine bark beetles (Ips pini) had a field day here, according to the evidence left behind on several fallen limbs. The look of a jagged saw tooth pattern means unfinished egg chambers. Pine bark beetles kill limbs and trees by girdling them. This stops the movement of water and nutrients up and down the tree and the infected limbs or the entire tree will die. These beetles are small and range in size from about 1/10 to 1/4 of an inch in length, but they can do a lot of damage when enough of them are in a forest.
Native river grapes (Vitis riparia) grow along the stream banks. These are old vines that grow well into the tree tops and the fermenting fruit makes the forest smell like grape jelly on warm fall days. I like looking at their tendrils. Sometimes I see beautiful Hindu dancers in their twisted shapes; other times animals, sometimes birds. This one took the shape of a heart.
River grapes are also called frost grapes, and their extreme cold tolerance makes their rootstock a favorite choice for many well-known grape varieties. They’ve been known to survive temperatures of -57 degrees F. (-49 C)
Bailey Brook gets its start in the Horatio Colony nature preserve in Keene, which was too far away to hike to on this day, so I stopped at this tangle of trees, brush and vines. Finding ways under, over, through or around snags like these can take a lot out of you. This stream completely dried up in last summer’s drought and I could have walked up its bed all the way to its source, but I didn’t. I’m happy to see it full pf water again.
If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song. ~Carl Perkins
Thanks for stopping in.
That fungus you couldn’t identify looks *so* much like a butterfly. 🙂
I thought so too!
🙂
Streams, large or small, in winter are wonderful places to explore. When I was a child and living back there, we had ticks, but not so many, and not so many tick borne diseases to worry about. They were not a concern hiking through the woods then.
So many beautiful photos of my memories from back there! Grapes vines and the smell of fruit in early autumn is a favorite one, as one of my aunts used to make wild grape jelly and we would get a jar for Christmas, along with her homemade fudge.
You answered my question on the horsetail being so high in silica, They can be boiled down and used to polish wood. I bet they are as good as 600 grit sandpaper.
Thank you Lavinia. I agree; I was always in the woods when I was a boy and never had a tick on me. Now I walk through an open field and come out covered with them unless I use bug spray.
The wild grape jelly sounds delicious, and so does the fudge. It’s probably a good thing I don’t have either at hand.
The boiled down horsetails must give a very fine finish. The Japanese are very good about such things.
Love reading your posts I always learn something! I thought the tree moss was beautiful. I would love to go on one of your nature walks, to see the forest through you eyes, so fascinating!!
Thank you Erika. I don’t do nature walks with groups but if you’re ever going to be in Keene you’re welcome to come along.
I love your posts! Thank you a million!! Here’s a Ganoderma photo for you. I know the dog doesn’t look very happy but in truth she was only about three feet off the ground and she got dog biscuits afterwards. Virginia Barlow
You’re welcome Virginia, and thank you. I consider that high praise coming from you.
Your photo didn’t come through with your comment but I found it online. The fungus is amazing; easily the biggest I’ve seen, and the dog is beautiful!
I loved your photo of the tree moss – a new one to me. You found a good number of fungi. It really never ceases to surprise me how many fungi seem to survive in very cold conditions.
Thank you Clare. Tree moss is a beautiful one but it likes really wet feet.
It’s amazing how many mushrooms can stand freezing weather. I never knew that until I started to really look for them.
It is so surprising as many of them are so soft and delicate-looking.
Yes, and they can freeze solid!
The horsetail picture was a real treat. Another thing I am going to have to look at more closely thanks to you.
They’re certainly worth looking for. They seem to like being near water, but not in it.
Love the tree moss. I’ve never seen them before this post.
I’m not sure why but they’re very scarce here.
It’s really nice to have a stream like that close to you where you can keep track of it!
Thanks Montucky! It is nice to have it nearby but I don’t go in there very often because it’s one of the most tick infested areas I know of. Probably because there are also deer in there.
How cool is seeing the birth of a fungus? I may have seen the same thing and never have known what it was.
I’m also amazed at the size of the Artist’s Conk, I’ve seen similar fungi here, but never that size.
Loved the image of the grape vine tendrils, very observant of you to notice the shape that they had grown into.
One of these days, I’m going to have to take a closer look at the frees around here, and remember to look at the bottom of the leaves for a change.
Thanks Jerry! It took me a few minutes to understand what I was seeing but it was pretty cool once I realized it was a tiny fungus, just starting its life.
I’ve read that artist’s conks can get 2 feet across. I left this one alone and I’m hoping it will get that big. I hope nobody picks it!
It’s amazing what you can see on the underside of a leaf. I try to look as often as I can and I usually find nothing but every now and then I get a fantastic surprise.
Only you would call tree mosses “my old friends”! (smile)
That artist’s conk – what a good shelf for your radio! It looks like one we had in our woodland. It became huge, and to my surprise, was made of beautiful wood. I didn’t know it damaged trees. If you pluck it off, does the damage continue? Or does the damage lead to the conk.
They are like old friends and I would happily walk a few miles to see them because I never see them anywhere else.
Yes the artist’s conk that you see is just the “fruit” of the mushroom. The “roots” are its mycelium and that’s what grows deep in the wood of the tree, and what causes the damage. If you remove the part that you see it won’t make a difference. It’s never a good thing to see mushrooms on a live tree.
If you see an artist’s conk again try picking it and drawing on the white underside. If you Google “Artist’s Conk” you’ll see some beautiful drawings that people have done on them.
When I first moved to New Hampshire from Connecticut I was dismayed to see no Christmas ferns growing in my woods. On a subsequent visit back to Connecticut, I dug up a few and they are thriving. I’m happy that you mentioned that they are native and I wasn’t dooming our ecology. Love the quote also.
Thank you John. I’m surprised you didn’t find any here; they’re fairly common.
I’m glad they transplanted so well for you. I’ve never tried moving one.
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
Shapes and colors from New Hampshire Garden Solutions
Thank you John.
I love the patterns that the pine bark beetles make, thanks for the picture.
You’re welcome Susan. They do a lot of damage but make some beautiful patterns too.