I needed to be in the woods for a while so I chose Yale Forest in Swanzey. The forest is owned by Yale University and is where the students in the forestry program get some hands on experience.
The trail used to be one of the roads north into Keene and you can still see pavement here and there.
The beeches and oaks were still hanging on so there was some fall color to enjoy.
There was also still some snow left from the first snow storm that dropped about 4 inches. First snows almost always melt away because the ground hasn’t yet frozen.
Evergreen ferns don’t mind snow. In fact they’ll stay green even under feet of it. That’s an evergreen Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) on the right and a spinulose wood fern (Dryopteris carthusiana) on the left.
Unlike the spore producing sori on the marginal wood fern (Dryopteris marginalis) which appear on the leaf margins, the sori on spinulose wood ferns appear between the midrib and the margins. Spinulose wood fern cross breeds the with both the marginal wood fern and the Intermediate wood fern (Dryopteris intermedia) so it can get confusing. This one was producing spores and as usual it made me wonder why so many ferns, mosses, lichens and clubmosses produce spores in cold weather. There has to be some way it benefits the continuation of the species but so far I haven’t discovered what it is.
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) is a common evergreen groundcover that grows along the trail. Small, heart shaped leaves on creeping stems grow at ground level. In spring it has white trumpet shaped flowers that grow in pairs and 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. My favorite parts of this plant are the greenish yellow leaf veins on leaves that look as if they were cut from hammered metal. I have several large patches of it growing in my yard.
Here was a downed tree; the first of many, I guessed. There have been lots of trees falling across the road this year and in some cases they are almost impossible to bypass.
I always stop to look at the branches of newly fallen trees to see what lichens lived on them. This one had a lichen garden in its crown. Mostly foliose (leafy) lichens, which were in fine form due to the recent wet weather. Lichens don’t like dry weather so I haven’t bothered them much this summer.
The big light colored lichen you saw in the previous shot was I believe a hammered shield lichen (Parmelia sulcata), so named because it looks like it was hammered out of a piece of metal. These lichens are on the rare side here but I see them occasionally, always on trees. Hammered shield lichen is said to have a large variety of named varieties and forms, so it can be tough to pin down. Fruiting bodies are said to be rare and I’ve never seen them. It is also said to have powdery, whitish soredia but I’ve never seen them either. Soredia are tiny packages of both fungus and alga that break off the lichen and they are simply another means of reproduction.
NOTE: A lichenologist helper has written in to tell me that this lichen is actually a crumpled rag lichen (Platismatia tuckermanii) which I’ve been searching for for years. I hope my misidentification hasn’t caused any confusion. I know there are lots of lichen lovers out there.
Though in photos the road looks very long in reality it’s probably only a couple of miles out and back. But it was a nice warm day and there is usually lots to see, so I wouldn’t mind if it was longer.
And here was a huge downed pine that had taken a few maples down with it when it fell. Its root ball was also huge.
Orange crust fungus (Stereum complicatum) is so bright it’s like a beacon in the woods and it can be seen from quite far away on fallen branches. The complicatum part of its scientific name means “folded back on itself” and as can be seen in this photo, that is often just what it does.
I saw some mushrooms squeezing out between the bark and wood of a stump.
I’m not sure what they were; possibly one of the wax cap Hygrocybe clan. In any event they were little and brownish and life is too short to try and identify little brown mushrooms. Even mycologists are too busy for them and toss them into a too hard basket labeled LBMs.
These larger examples on a different stump might have been late fall oyster mushrooms (Panellus serotinus) but I didn’t look at their undersides so I’m not sure. My color finding software sees salmon and coral pink, while I see orange. An orange mushroom in clusters on wood at this time of year often means the Jack O’ Lantern mushroom (Omphalotus illudens), which is toxic. That’s why you should always look at their undersides and other features if you want to eat them.
And the mosses were so beautifully green!
Finally you come to the small stream you have to cross if you are to go on. I made it without falling once again, but I always wonder if this will be the time. Some of those stones are tippy.
Once I crossed the stream I saw that a new beaver dam had appeared since the last time I was here.
Recently chewed alders told me the beavers were very active. On small trees like these they leave a sharp cut that looks like someone has cut the tree with loppers. Their teeth are very sharp.
The beaver pond had grown deeper and wider.
You can tell the beaver pond wasn’t here when this land was farmed, probably in the 1800s. You don’t build stone walls under water.
The pond banks had breached in several places and if left to their own devices the beavers will flood this entire area.
I don’t worry about what beavers are doing because they do a huge amount of good for the ecosystem, but since all of this is very near a highway the highway department will eventually destroy the beaver dam so the highway isn’t flooded. I didn’t worry about that either; it has become part of the cycle. Instead I admired the beautiful red of the winterberries (Ilex verticillata). They are a native holly that love wet feet and the beavers are making sure that they get what they love. By doing so you can see that the beavers, in a round about way, are providing food for the birds. They also create and provide habitat for a long list of animals, amphibians and birds. This area would be very different without them.
It’s amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing. ~Scott Westerfeld
Thanks for stopping in.
A lovely post. I’m a Mainiac living in Virginia. Tour blog takes me home. Thank you.
You’re welcome Tracy, I’m glad you liked it!
There is a move to get more beavers into Scotland but an equal and opposite move to oppose reintroduction. I hope that they can come to an agreement because they do a lot of useful work.
Yes, they really do. An amazing amount of wildlife including plants benefits from their work. They also help drain wet areas and create a pollution buffer zone.
I support their reintroduction. They are useful for slowing down rain run off too.
Yes, but they can also get themselves into some trouble as well. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that they were here first and they’re doing what comes naturally.
Very true.
I enjoyed this virtual walk through the woods, Allen. I wonder if autumn spores need some sort of cold incubation period, like bulbs, so that they they grow in the proper season?
Thank you Lavinia. That is certainly a plausible conclusion but I can’t seem to find anything about it in print. You’d think someone would have studied it, but maybe I’m just asking the question the wrong way.
He has a few mushroom comments in this one. Enjoy!
On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 3:59 AM New Hampshire Garden Solutions wrote:
> New Hampshire Garden Solutions posted: ” I needed to be in the woods for a > while so I chose Yale Forest in Swanzey. The forest is owned by Yale > University and is where the students in the forestry program get some hands > on experience. The trail used to be one of the roads north into ” >
Hmmmm, perhaps those fern spores are like some seeds and need cold stratification or vernalization?? So much wonderful mystery in nature, huh? LBMs made me think about DYCs, which I’m quite familiar with, haha. You too? The mixed green lichens on that fallen tree are SO beautiful. Please do continue to exercise extra care when tromping about in the woods, Allen.
You could be right Ginny, that would make sense. Some spores release directly onto the snow. Yes, nature can be mysterious!
I’ve never heard of DYCs, at least not as an abbreviation.
Thank you, I do take extra care in the woods these days because I catch myself shuffling rather than picking up my feet. It must come with age.
Lol, DYCs are “darned yellow composites”, which, as you know, are too numerous to count! Ahhh, the “joys” of aging, huh? Growing old is not for the faint of heart.
Yes, most of those DYCs go right into my too hard basket!
I told my doctor since I had never grown old before I wasn’t sure how to do it, so he was going to have to give me some tips.
As usual, just a beautiful post, both visually and written. Picture me reading in the early morning looking over Lake Michigan and laughing aloud when you wrote about LBMs. I’m still chuckling. I also enjoyed the lichens so much. Next time I see a fallen tree, I’ll spend some time looking for lichens. Thank you for what you do. Stay well.
You’re welcome Beth, I’m glad you enjoyed it and I hope you and yours will also stay well.
You’re very lucky to have a view of Lake Michigan!
It’s to bad Yale wouldn’t let someone do some trail work. I do a lot of trail work and this looks fairly straight forward. Have chain saws will travel. I know that in this law suit happy world they would say no.
Thank you Bart. You could probably spend a weekend out there, just getting the trees off the road.
Since it is a forestry school though, I doubt they’d want anyone else to do it. They will eventually clean it up I’m sure, because I know that someone at Yale reads these posts. It could be the virus is getting in the way at the moment.
I loved all the autumn colours and the pictures and information about what the beavers do. They sound very useful members of society.
Thank you Susan. Yes, beavers do a lot of good but they pay no attention to whether or not they’re flooding human structures so they’re often seen as pests. And they are determined!
As photographed, the angle of the beautiful green moss brought to mind a more animated sea citizen, a stingray! Making his way through a tide of oak leaves, spine rigid with the effort. Who knows, future “hungry life” might eat Swanzey, become the Yale Ocean, featuring enormous beavers with gills and aquatic LBMs.
Please stay upright crossing smaller woods r waters.
Thank you. I hope not all of that comes true Lynne!
I used to fall fairly regularly in the woods but I try to be a lot more careful these days.