Things I’ve Seen

In how many forms can the softness of life appear? A mother holding her newborn child comes to mind. Or the feathers on a song bird’s breast. Freshly fallen snow. A favorite pet’s fur. On this day it was new spring leaves. Actually it was more the view across Half Moon Pond and the reflection in it that was so very soft. It made me feel soft, or maybe gentle is a better word. Or tender. But words don’t matter. Nature will bring you softness in its many forms.

When I looked down at my feet instead of across the pond I saw ripples in the sand. But this isn’t the view of a beach; this photo looks through about a foot of water to see these ripples. Nature also brings clarity.

I found what I thought was the dry husk, called an exoskeleton, of a dragonfly on the stem of a pond plant. I’m seeing a lot of them lately and they signal dragonfly emergence from the water. A dragonfly crawls up a leaf or stick as a nymph and once the exoskeleton has dried a bit the dragonfly emerges from it to unfold and dry its wings. When its wings are dry it simply flies away and leaves the exoskeleton behind and that’s what the strange husks are, but this one was different. I believe those are eyes that I see. I can’t explain what look like threads. It’s as if the dragonfly were laced into a costume.

If what I see are eyes this was a dragonfly in the process of emerging from its exoskeleton, and that is something I would have liked to have seen. Unfortunately I didn’t see the eyes until I looked at the photo. The entire creature was barely an inch long.

An old hemlock tree that grew right at the edge of the pond fell and over the years weather has washed every bit of soil from its roots. I thought what was left was as beautiful as a sculpture. I could look at it all day.

Our big snapping turtles are up out of the swamps and looking for suitable places to lay their eggs. They often choose the soft sand around the pond, sometimes right of the edge of the road. They’re right on time; they usually appear during the first week of June. Snapping turtles dig rather shallow holes with their hind legs and lay anywhere from 25-80 eggs each year. Incubation time is 9-18 weeks but many eggs don’t make it anywhere near that long. Foxes, minks, skunks, crows and raccoons dig them up and eat them and destroyed nests are a common sight along sandy roadsides. These big turtles eat plants, fish, frogs, snakes, ducklings, and just about anything else they can catch. Oddly, when in the water they are rather placid and don’t bother humans. This one didn’t pick a very good spot. You can probably see all the tire track in the sand around her.

This mother turtle seemed to have lost her way, or maybe she was just crossing the road. In any event I hope she made it. Some don’t; I’ve seen turtles that have been run over by cars.

Pretty little rosy maple moths almost always show up at about the same time as the snapping turtles start laying their eggs, and that is always fascinating to me. These moths lay their tiny eggs on the undersides of maple leaves and that’s how they come by their common name. Adult moths do not eat but the caterpillars are able to eat a few leaves each. They are called green striped maple worms.

We have a grove of crabapples where I work and they were just coming into bloom when I took this photo. They’re in part of the 13 acre meadow that I mow.

I thought this view of the Ashuelot River might make you think I had caught a tree falling, but actually that dead white pine on the left is falling in very slow motion and has looked like that for a while now. When it finally does fall I think it might almost stretch across the entire river. It’s very tall.

A painted turtle family rested on a log in the waning sunshine. Mother seemed to be more concerned with the littlest one scampering away than with her twins. Or at least that was the story that came to mind as I watched.

Red maple seeds (samaras) are always beautiful. In fact there is little about a red maple that isn’t beautiful.

Silver maple samaras are not as colorful as red maple samaras at this stage but are still beautiful in their way. When they’re young they’re bright red topped off with a white wooly coating and are very beautiful.

You don’t need to live on the seashore to see waves. When the water level in the Ashuelot River is just right waves like these form and people can see this section of river when it is most alive and at its most beautiful. I always try to capture the waves in my camera so I can show you what I saw. I’ve known this river all of my life and it has taught me much, including how to photograph waves.

I find some of the plants and flowers you see on this blog in places like this. Many plants like skunk cabbages like boggy ground and they can find it in these swampy areas. All of this water finds its way into the river in the previous photo, and it helps make the waves that I enjoy watching so much. The streams that flow down from the hills in the distance, the swamp seen here, the river; they are all connected, just as all of life is connected.

The skunk cabbages are having a good year, despite it being so dry last year. Though many plants are flowering like I’ve never seen there are a few that seem to be having a tough time of it.

Someone nailed what looked like a lumberjack cutout to a tree. I can’t even guess why.

Royal ferns (Osmunda spectabilis) have started producing spores. Another name for this fern is “flowering fern,” because someone once thought that the fertile, fruiting fronds looked like bunches of flowers. Royal fern is the only fern that grows on every temperate continent except Australia, which makes it one of the most widespread of all living species. They are also thought to be one of the oldest living things, with fossil records of the Osmundaceae family dating back over 300 million years. Individual plants are thought to be able to live 100 years or more. I always like to show this fern because a lot of people don’t know that it’s a fern. This one lives next to a stream.

I went to Beaver Brook in Keene hoping to see the beautiful trilliums that grow there but instead saw how beautiful the brook itself was. In spring before the leaves are fully unfurled is one of the few times you can see this view. Just up around that corner in the distance grow trilliums, Solomon’s seal, rose moss, dog lichen, blue stemmed goldenrod, purple flowering raspberry and many of the other beautiful plants that you often see on this blog.

I’ve included this photo, taken just after a shower, so you would know that it isn’t always sunny here in New Hampshire. It was taken when droplets were still falling from the trees above, and I heard the steady pat…..pat…..pat of drops as they landed on an oak leaf. When you focus on such a sound you might find that your mind becomes quiet and free of thought. You might also find that the cares and problems that you carried into the woods with you seem smaller somehow, and much less important. Serenity is just one of many gifts that nature has to offer.

Unfortunately, though we have had enough rain lately to nearly end the abnormally dry conditions I’m still not seeing many mushrooms. I did find this one growing on a pine stump. Google lens thinks it’s a scaly sawgill mushroom (Neolentinus lepideus) but I wouldn’t bet the farm on that.

I can’t explain why these oak leaves were so beautifully red in June but I was happy to see them. They felt as silky as they looked.

Grasses like this orchard grass have started to flower and they’re always worth looking at a little more closely because they can be as beautiful as any other flower. Orchard grass seed heads are composed of spikelets that bear two to eight flowers which dangle from thin filaments (pedicels) and shimmer in the breeze, which of course blows the pollen to other grass plants.

Sweet vernal grass is a short, knee high grass that flowers in spring. The white “strings” you see in the photo are its flowers and since this grass doesn’t mind light shade the white is usually very easy to see. One of the most interesting things about this grass is how it smells like fresh cut hay with a bit of vanilla spilled on it, and it is for that reason it is called vanilla grass. I’ve read that the scent comes from the same substance that gives sweet woodruff its fragrance.

Ho hum, just another fallen tree in the forest, right? Not exactly. I like to see what mosses, lichens and / or fungi are growing on fallen trees so I usually look them over. This one was certainly mossy but that isn’t what caught my eye. It was the wound on the log, where enough of the bark had gone to show the beautiful, swirling grain pattern of the wood underneath. What furniture maker, I thought as I admired it, wouldn’t give his eye teeth for a log like this one? I’d love to have a table top made from it. Or even a cane. Which I hope I won’t need right away.

I should explain for the more recent readers how these “Things I’ve Seen” posts began. Years ago I realized that I had a lot of leftover photos after a blog post had been put together. They weren’t bad photos; it was just that they didn’t seem to fit in anywhere. It’s hard to fit a photo of a snapping turtle into a flower post for instance, so instead I used them in this kind of post. Pretty much everything you’ve seen here was just something I stumbled into. That’s also what makes these posts the hardest ones to do, because I sometimes stumble onto something I’ve never seen. But that is fine; the best way to study nature in my experience is to not think about how things should be or how you hope they will be; instead just experience and accept what is, and enjoy it as it comes.

It is very important to go out alone, to sit under a tree—not with a book, not with a companion, but by yourself—and observe the falling of a leaf, hear the lapping of the water, the fishermen’s song, watch the flight of a bird, and of your own thoughts as they chase each other across the space of your mind. If you are able to be alone and watch these things, then you will discover extraordinary riches which no government can tax, no human agency can corrupt, and which can never be destroyed. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Goose Pond

Regular readers of this blog no doubt know that we’re in the midst of a severe drought here in New Hampshire, but they might not know how the drought has affected this blog. In years past I’ve done regular mushroom posts at this time of year, but this year I haven’t found enough to do even one mushroom post. I recently had a professional mushroom hunter tell me that in thirty years of mushroom hunting he’s never seen such a lack of fungi, but I didn’t let that stop me from looking. I’ve always had good luck finding fungi at Goose Pond in Keene so on Saturday I decide to try. Surrounding the beautiful pond is a vast 500 acre tract of forest that has been left nearly untouched since the mid-1800s. It’s a wilderness area, and it’s just 2.6 miles from downtown Keene.

Goose Pond was called Crystal Lake by some in the 1860s, and was also known as Sylvan Lake in the 1900s. Keene had a major fire in 1865 and the town well and cisterns failed to provide enough water to put it out, so dams were built to enlarge the pond to 42 acres. Wooden pipe was laid to 48 hydrants by 1869. The city stopped using the pond as a water supply in the 1930s and in 1984 designated the forest as a wilderness park. Today it is mainly used by hikers, fishermen, swimmers, mountain bikers and snowshoers. This undated photo shows Goose Pond at what I’m guessing is probably the early 1900s, judging by the clothing of the woman and child. The gazebo to the right is no longer there. What impresses me most about this photo is how many of the trees had been cut down on the distant hill. Everybody burned wood in those days and it had to come from somewhere, I suppose.

There is a spillway that lets excess water out of the pond and it almost always has water running over it. Even with the drought it had a dribble of water on this day.

Showy tick trefoil (Desmodium canadense) grew beside the spillway. This plant gets part of its common name from the little barbed hairs that cover the seed pods and make them stick to clothing like ticks. The “showy” part of its common name comes from the way that so many of its small pink flowers bloom at once. As the plant sets seeds its erect stems bend lower to the ground so the barbed seed pods can catch in the fur of passing animals.

Or in this case, so they can stick to the clothing of forgetful humans. I leaned close enough to the plant when I was taking its photo to get its flat, sticky, segmented seedpods stuck all over me. Luckily I had plenty of opportunities to stop and take more photos and each time I did I picked a few off. You can’t brush them off; each one has to be picked or scraped off. By the time I’d made it all the way around the pond I had gotten almost all of them.

Though the start of the trail is flooded with light it gets dark quickly because of the huge pines and hemlocks along the water’s edge. I wonder if the lack of direct sunlight might have a lot to do with why there are often so many mushrooms here. The trail was muddy in places, even in such a dry summer.

I started seeing mushrooms almost immediately, starting with this big bolete. There were many examples of this mushroom along the trail and they were all quite big. The underside of the cap was yellow and had pores instead of gills as you would expect in a bolete and the stem was deeply furrowed. I thought it might be a painted bolete (Suillus pictus) but I can’t be 100% sure. It wasn’t at all slimy like many in the suillus family are said to be.

Cross veined troop mushrooms (Xeromphalina kauffmanii) are one of my favorites. They like to grow on hardwood logs or stumps in dark places so I always have to use a flash or an LED when I take their photo.  Luckily my new camera has a built in LED so I don’t have to remember to carry one anymore. This mushroom usually appears in large enough numbers to look like a fungal army, and that’s where the name troop mushroom comes from. The cross veined part of the common name comes from the way the gills have tiny buttresses between them. The stem is always quite dark and the cap is orange yellow with slightly lighter gills, and less than an inch wide. There is an identical mushroom named Xeromphalina campanella which grows on conifer logs.

I think this might be false coral mushroom (Tremellodendron pallidum.) It’s called false coral because it’s actually one of the jelly fungi. This fungus starts life resembling bird droppings and develops into the shape seen in the above photo as time goes on. As it further ages it will lose its white color and become another color that will be determined by what it grows on. I’m guessing if it grew on soil like these examples it might turn brown.

There are 3 smallish streams you have to cross as you make the circuit around the pond and well-built bridges help you get across.  On this day this and another bridge weren’t needed because the streams had dried up. In fact I was standing in what would have been the stream when I took this photo.

I didn’t think we’d had enough rain from passing thunderstorms for slime molds and didn’t expect to find any, but here they were. This orange one was about as big as a baseball, or about 3 inches across. I think it might be Trichia varia, which as far as I can tell has no common name. When slime molds run out of food-bacteria and yeasts-they literally begin to move and can often appear web or net like. They form streams of cells called pseudoplasmodium and move at about one millimeter per hour. Once they come together into a mass the cells change their shape and can form stalks that are capped by fruiting bodies. A fruiting body can look like jellybean or sphere shapes, or can sometimes resemble blackberries, hair, dripping wax, and other shapes bizarre enough to be from another planet.

The plasmodial slime mold in the above photo, like many others, moves using cytoplasmic streaming, which is basically a contracting of “muscles” by all of the separate cells until they come together in a single mass. They then shift from the growth to the fruiting stage. Slime molds die if they dry out, so most of this usually occurs at night or on damp, humid days after a rain. The bright color of this one made it easy to see.

The separate amoeba-like fruiting bodies that made up this slime mold were spherical. Each one is probably about the same diameter as the head of a common pin, or even smaller. Though some people think they’re “yucky” slime molds are a very important part of the workings of a forest and I find them both fascinating and beautiful.

When I saw something that looked like white powder on a log I knew it had to be another slime mold. There are a few different white coral slime molds (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa) and they come in different shapes, from finger like to geodesic dome shaped. I put the penny there to give you an idea of how small this slime mold is. The smallest ones would have fit in Abe Lincoln’s ear. I was able to simply push the penny into the log because of how rotten it was. It was also soaking wet.

The coral slime mold likes to grow on wood in dark, moist places, such as the underside of a log. If you should happen to see what looks like white dust or paint on a log there’s a good chance that it’s a slime mold. You’ll want a loupe or a macro lens to see any real detail.

The pond has a small island in it and I was wishing I had a kayak with me so I could explore it. When I tried to take a photo of it from the other side so the sunlight wasn’t coming directly at me the island blended into the shoreline and all but disappeared, so we’re stuck with this harsh, backlit view.

I’m guessing that this white pine (Pinus strobus) must have been hit by lightning. The scar on it ran from about 20 feet high right down into the ground. It didn’t look man made and didn’t look like a frost crack. In my experience a tree hit by lightning explodes into splinters, but I can’t think of any other way this scar would have formed. It was also recent.

The scar followed the trunk downwards and then followed one of the largest roots into the ground. There were long strips of bark lying around, but they weren’t burnt. I’ve never seen anything like it so I looked for something similar in Michael Wojtek’s book Bark, but apparently he’s never seen anything like it either. This is another head scratcher that will have to go into the nature’s mystery pile.

Before long I saw another large slime mold. This photo shows how slime molds, even though sometimes covering a large area, are actually made up of hundreds or thousands of single entities. These entities move through the forest looking for food or a suitable place to fruit and eventually come together in a mass. I think this one might be spreading yellow tooth slime (Phanerochaete chrysorhiza.)

These are the sausage shaped “teeth” that make up the spreading yellow tooth slime mold. They are fruiting bodies that will release the thousands of spores they’ve produced on their surfaces to be dispersed by the wind. They are so small that they are rarely able to be seen with the naked eye.

When you’re in a forest getting a photo of it is harder than I ever thought it would be. I tried many times to get a photo that would show you what it was like but it never worked until I found this spot a year or two ago.  A large tree fell and opened up the canopy to let in enough light to get a fair photo of what these New Hampshire woods are like. They can be dark and close like these are or sometimes more light and open. There is obviously something about this particular forest that mushrooms and slime molds like.

I didn’t see any geese in Goose Pond but I saw many other amazing things that made the hike an enjoyable one. If you happen to be a local nature lover, this is a hike that you really shouldn’t miss. At a normal pace it takes about 45 minutes to an hour to make it all the way around but if you like to stop and look at things it could take a bit longer. It took me about 4 hours.

The wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask. Nancy Wynne Newhall

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Seen Along a Stream

There’s a stream near my house that I follow occasionally. It’s not big enough to row a boat up or down, gently or otherwise, but life is often dreamlike when I walk its banks.

It was a warm, rainy day that was more like fall than winter but ice had formed on the logs overnight and remained there in shadier places. I tried to catch all the colors of the rainbow that the sun made in the ice but once again I was less than successful.

When the glaciers retreated they left behind huge amounts of sand and gravel in this area and most stream and river beds flow through it. Many animals drink from this stream and the sand bars dotted here and there along its length are great places to look for their tracks, but on this day the rain had been heavy enough to wash them away.

It’s easy to see why sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis) is also called bead fern when you look closely at the shiny black spore cases on its fertile fronds. This fern gets its name from its sensitivity to frost because it’s usually one of the first to brown in the fall. It also likes growing in damp soil and does well along the stream.

 

It’s not hard to imagine tree skirt moss (Anomodon attenuates) creeping across the bark of its host tree, looking very worm like.

This jelly fungus was the color of Vaseline when I saw it on its limb but somehow the color has changed into a kind of yellow-green-orange in the photos. I was all prepared to tell you I’d never seen it before but now it looks like the common witch’s butter (Tremella mesenterica.) It’s also called yellow brain, golden jelly fungus, and yellow trembler, and is very common in winter.

I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t find script lichens (Graphis) at certain times of year and then I finally realized that they only fruit in late fall and winter in this region, so at other times of year they look like a whitish gray splotch on tree bark. The dark rune like figures are its fruiting bodies (apothecia) and the lighter gray is the body (thallus) of the lichen. There are many different varieties of script lichen, each determined by the shape of its apothecia.

Someday I’m going to find out how releasing their spores at this time of year benefits some lichens. So far I haven’t had much luck.

I’ve only seen bitter wart lichen (Pertusaria amara) once before so I was very happy to find this one growing near the stream on an American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) limb. The body (thallus) of this lichen is whitish to greenish gray and its fruiting bodies (apothecia) are the whitish “warts” from which it takes part of its common name. The other part of its common name comes from the fact that it is extremely bitter tasting. It seems to prefer the bark of hornbeams because that’s where it was growing both times I’ve seen it. This lichen seems to have a hard time producing spores, which might help account for its rarity.

Foamflowers are native plants that hold their hairy leaves through winter and like growing in damp shaded soil along streams and rivers. Quite often after it gets cold the leaves will turn a reddish color but this year they’ve stayed green.

Many wild grapevines grow along this stream and their fermenting fruit perfumes the air heavily each fall. Their tiny flowers are also very fragrant and can be detected from quite a distance. Grapevines are easy to identify because of the way their bark peels in long strips. These grapes are one of our native vines and are called riverbank grapes (Vitis riparia) because that is where they like to grow. They have been known to survive temperatures as low as -70°F and are used as rootstock for several less hardy commercial varieties.  The vine in the photo is an old one, nearly as big around as my leg.

Something made strange marks in this whitewash lichen (Phlyctis argena). This lichen is crusty and tough when dry but softens with rain and is easily damaged. I can’t think of any bug, bird or animal that would have made these marks. They were too thin and shallow for a bear and too high on the tree for a bobcat to have made them. Maybe a falling branch made them on its way to the ground.

For years I’ve seen foam at the base of certain white pine trees (Pinus strobus) when it rains. Sometimes it is in just a spot or two and at other times it nearly circles the entire tree. I’ve tried to find out what might cause it for a long time and finally had some luck at the Walter Reeves website recently. The most plausible explanation says that the “foam is caused by the formation of a crude soap on the bark. During drought there is an accumulation of salts, acids and other particles from the air that coat the bark surface (soap is essentially salts and acids). When it rains, these mix with the water and go into solution. The froth (foam) is from the agitation of the mixture when it encounters a barrier (bark plates) during its flow toward the ground.” That makes sense to me.

If I understand what I’ve read correctly, the deeper channels or galleries seen on this white pine limb were made by the male pine engraver beetle (Ips) and the shallower ones by his harem of females. Eggs are deposited in these shallower galleries and once the larva hatch they create even more galleries. It all ends up looking like some form of ancient script and sometimes I catch myself trying to read it.

Luckily these beetles attack trees that are already damaged or weakened by stress and kill very few healthy trees but still, if you happen to own forested land and have seen evidence of these beetles you would do well to contact a qualified professional forester.  A healthy forest is the best defense against bark beetles and many other pests.

Tree moss grew along the stream embankment close enough to the water to be submerged if it rises very much. I’ve seen it flood here several times, high enough to wash over the road. Apparently the mosses and other plants can take it.

From the side the tree moss looked even more beautiful and full of life, as if it was glowing with an inner light. Some plants seem to just throb with the excitement of living, and this is one of them. They’re a true joy to behold.

Our minds, as well as our bodies, have need of the out-of-doors. Our spirits, too, need simple things, elemental things, the sun and the wind and the rain, moonlight and starlight, sunrise and mist and mossy forest trails, the perfumes of dawn and the smell of fresh-turned earth and the ancient music of wind among the trees.~ Edwin Way Teale

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Things I’ve Seen

This post is another one of those filled with all of the strange things I’ve seen that don’t fit anywhere else.

I found several white pine trees (Pinus strobus) on less than a square acre of land with some type of red substance on the base of their trunks. I don’t know if this was caused by a fungus or not, but I’m fairly certain that it wasn’t a lichen or slime mold, and I’m sure it wasn’t paint. I’ve never seen this before.

 

This tree also had a red substance on it, but it was higher up than that on the white pines was. This looked like it might have been a crustose lichen-possibly one of the fire dot lichens.

 

Last summer long I kept watch for a wild cucumber vine (Echinocystis lobata) but never saw one. Then I recently found this one, or what was left of it. This summer I’ll go back to this place and get the shots I wanted last summer. These vines are very fragrant when they bloom and people have started growing them in gardens for their enjoyable fragrance.

 

This bark was on the end of a fallen log. It was much smoother and was a different color than all of the bark around it, and it looked as if someone had sanded and stained it. Seeing things like this always make me wonder how and why they happened.

We are still having freezing cold days here and this recently cut hemlock stump with its sap frozen solid illustrates just how cold it can get when the wind is from the north.

 

This dead fern made me imagine the rib cage of some unknown forest creature.

Birds must lose a lot of feathers, because I see them hung up on shrubs all the time. Sometimes from a distance they can be easily mistaken for flowers. Since I’m tired of bush whacking my way through the woods to look at feathers that I thought were flowers, I bought myself some nifty mini binoculars to scan my surroundings with. They weigh almost nothing and will fit in a pocket.  I might even get to see some birds with them.

 

I recently thumbed through a book called “Photographing the Patterns of Nature,” which was a mistake because now I’m seeing patterns everywhere.  This is the pattern on the underside of a bracket fungus.

 A tiny midge (Rhabdophaga strobiloides) laid an egg in the developing terminal leaf buds of a willow and when the larva grew it caused this pine cone gall by releasing a chemical which interferes with the willow’s normal development. The adult insect will emerge soon and repeat the cycle.

 

When something that doesn’t stretch is wrapped around the trunk of a tree it interferes with the tree’s normal development by stopping the flow of nutrients to its roots from its crown. This is called girdling. Unless it has other branches that aren’t girdled so nutrients can reach its roots, the tree will usually die. In the case of the tree sapling in the photo, this girdling was caused by a grape vine tendril.

I took this picture of this beard lichen because it looked so ancient-as if it had been clinging to this branch since the dawn of time.

One cold morning at about 6:00 am I saw clouds around the moon so I gathered up my camera and tripod, and out I went. Out of over 100 photos, this is the only one worth showing here.  Keeping both the moon and clouds in focus was much harder than it should have been. I’ll see if I can learn from the rejects and try again the next time the moon is in the clouds.

In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.  ~John Milton

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High Blue Trail

Last weekend when I wasn’t climbing up Beech Hill in Keene I was climbing another hill in Walpole, New Hampshire. Walpole is a small town on the Connecticut River north of Keene.                       There wasn’t anything remarkable about the trail itself, but it did go up and up-and then it went up some more. Those beech and oak leaves are very slippery and hide loose stones that can give you a nasty ankle twist when they slip quickly out from underfoot, so it is wise to watch where you step at this time of year. This is the view from a granite outcropping at the top of the trail, looking westward toward Vermont. I can’t find the name of the hill that this view is seen from, but it is part of the 165 acre Warner Forest preserve. This trail is called “High Blue,” because at 1588 feet it is higher than the surrounding terrain, and because the view is indeed blue-especially when you zoom in on it with a camera. This photo shows exactly what the camera saw, but I don’t remember everything being quite as blue as it is seen here. The mountain floating on the clouds is Stratton Mountain in Vermont. You know you’re there when you see the sign and the view and need to sit for a bit to catch your breath.

Finding quartz in New Hampshire isn’t special, but finding an outcropping of pure quartz certainly is. This ledge was large and quite long, and it’s the only one like it that I’ve ever seen.Other boulders were covered with rock tripe lichens. Because it hadn’t rained in a while the rock tripe was brittle and would break in half like a potato chip. After a good rain it becomes pliable and bends without breaking. I’m not sure if this is a jelly fungus or a slime mold but there were several large, half dollar size examples on a fallen log. It had a rubbery consistency. Someone used to live up here, and this is all that’s left of their house. Behind this foundation corner was an old chimney that had toppled long ago. Finding stone walls and abandoned foundations in the woods is very common here in New Hampshire. In fact, you could walk for days into the wilderness to a spot where you thought nobody had ever been and you would probably find a stone wall there.I’m still seeing mushrooms in spite of the cold nights. These orange ones grew on a sun washed stump.

We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home, in towns and cities ~ G.W. Sears

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July Forest Finds

There are days when I’m searching for wildflowers when I can go for hours without finding any, but those are also the days when I often see many other interesting things. It is those things “other than flowers” that will be found in this post. I found this Clymene Moth (Haploa clymene) hanging out on a wilted bee balm leaf. This one was quite easy to identify because of the upside down cross on its wings. (Some see a dagger) According to what I’ve read the larva feed on several different tree species including oak and willow. Clymene means “renowned one” in Greek. Apparently this moth is only found in the eastern part of the country.From a distance I thought this was another moth or a butterfly, but was a feather.I found these pinesap plants (Monotropa hypopithys ) growing in a very dark, dry forest and was surprised to see them. They are a relative of Indian pipes (Monotropa uniflora) and like Indian pipes have no chlorophyll. They are also thought to be parasitic like Indian pipes. Pinesap plants have several flower buds on each stem and Indian pipes have only one. If these plants come up in the summer they are a yellow color like that in the photo, and if they come up in the fall they are usually a reddish color. I’ve been waiting a week or more for this group to stand up, but they haven’t yet.  It’s almost as if they’re frozen in the position seen in the picture, because they haven’t moved. This pine root was in the middle of a trail I was following.  How many shoe bottoms did it take to wear it away like this, I wondered. I love the way these worn roots look as if they have been carved, sanded and stained. I realized, while admiring this one that it would be an impossible to duplicate this by carving because the bark trying to cover over the wound is a large part of the whole.I thought this was a caterpillar on this willow tree but it turned out to be an Elm Sawfly Larva (Cimbex Americana.) These come in other colors like pink, white, green and gray, and like to hang out in willow trees. The elm sawfly is the largest species of sawfly in North America. In addition to the black stripe down their body they also have a row of black dots on each side of their body which can just barely be seen in this photo. The black dots are spiracles, or breathing tubes. These larvae also feed on elm, maple, cottonwood and birch but their favorites are willow and elm.Turkey tails (Trametes versicolor) are a lot harder to see in the summer than they are in winter because of the undergrowth, but I still see them now and then. These were quite large and grew on a tree that had fallen across a trail.I sat down on a stone to take a break and turned and saw what I thought were red capped mushrooms growing on a moss covered stone. Each tiny cap was probably about half the diameter of a pencil eraser. Now that I see the detail in the picture though, I wonder if they aren’t young lipstick powder horns (Cladonia macilenta.) Since I’ve never seen lipstick powder horns I can’t be 100% sure but the description in the book Lichens of the North Woods comes very close to matching these. I wish I had checked them for gills but I didn’t want to destroy them just to satisfy my curiosity. I like to leave things as I find them so the next person can feel the same sense of discovery that I felt.This one I do know without having to look it up. It is a yellow amanita muscaria, or fly agaric. The amanita family contains some of the most poisonous mushrooms known. Amanita muscaria with a red cap is supposed to be more common than yellow, but the yellow ones are all I ever see.Like turkey tails, beard lichens are also harder to find in summer because of all the leaves on the trees but this one grew on a branch that was overhanging a beaver pond, making it easier to spot. This might also be Boreal Oak moss (Evernia mesomorpha) according to the book Lichens of the North Woods. I know where several large colonies of blue bead lily (Clintonia borealis) grow and in the spring I saw hundreds of flowers. Not all flowers become fruit though; out of hundreds of blooms I’ve seen only two berries. It has taken a few weeks of searching to find them, but I’m glad that I did so I could show why the plant is called the blue bead lily. The fruit is certainly blue and is also said to be mildly toxic. It is supposed to have a terrible taste as well. Native Americans used the plant to treat bruises and burns and the root was used in a medicinal tea. The freshly dug root is said to attract bears. Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora,) is a wildflower in the wintergreen family which is common enough but is usually seen with its flower nodding and pointing downward. When the flowers start bearing seeds they begin to dry out and slowly turn upright to the sky. The flower then becomes a fruit capsule before the plant finally turns brown and dries out completely. The Monotropa part of the scientific name means “one turn” for the way the flower turns once, from nodding to upright. Uniflora means one stem, because there is only one flower per stem. These seed heads of the yellow hop clover (Trifolium aureum ) look bright red to me but all of the books say that they’re brown so I’ll go with that for a color since I’m somewhat color blind. These seed heads are how the plant got its common name because someone, somewhere once thought they looked like hops. And they do-sort of. Each of the rounded parts that look like scales was a flower, and each holds one small seed.I saw this gall on a willow branch one day and thought it looked a lot like the apple galls found on oak trees. The only difference is that it looks as if it has been pasted onto the branch with mud. I’ve spent many hours trying to identify this with no luck, so if anyone knows what it is I (we) would love to hear from you.

Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature ~ Cicero

Thanks for visiting.

 

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Miscellaneous Bits of Nature

Good Morning. I thought I’d steer us away from flowers again for a short time. I wouldn’t want anyone getting bored and there are many things in nature that are as beautiful as flowers. Sometimes, even more so-or at least in a different way-but that’s just my opinion. This time of year brings along the meadow flowers and that is where I’ve been spending a lot of my time. Grasses seem to be doing well this year-this stand was so tall that it was over my head.Many grasses are flowering now. This one is orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata) which is described as a fast growing, cool season grass that is shade tolerant and drought resistant. Legend has it that it was reported growing in this country before 1760, so it has been here awhile. I love seeing grasses with their pollen ready to fly on the wind. It is a moment that passes very quickly and isn’t often witnessed. These odd looking things are the fruit of the black willow (Salix nigra.) This tree is also called swamp willow and is often planted on river and stream banks to help control erosion. The cone shaped seed pods will only appear on female plants and, as the photo below shows, will split open to release cottony seeds that are carried on the wind. I found this tree on a river bank. A female black willow (Salix nigra) tree releases its seeds to the wind. If you have ever wondered what the world will look like when human beings are no longer here, this photo might help. This is part of a street called Washington Street, which is a major thoroughfare running north-south through Keene, NH.  The northernmost part of it, which was closed so a highway could be built, appears in the photo. If you look closely in the lower right corner you can just see the double yellow line that still runs down the center. Most of the low growth encroaching along each side is poison ivy. This street was originally laid out in 1736 so the town could have better access to a saw mill that stood near here. This part of it was closed in the early 1960s. I thought it might be a good place to find flowers. I followed the abandoned street looking for wildflowers but all I found was fungi, mosses and ferns. This yellow mushroom lit up a dark spot. A damselfly found a spot of sunlight and patiently sat still while I fumbled with my camera. I tried to identify this one but became overwhelmed by all the choices and colors. Turkey tails (Trametes versicolor) grew on a birch log, but these had colors much more subdued than those I usually see. I wonder if the tree species they grow on makes a difference in their color. Most of the very colorful ones seem to grow on conifers, I’ve noticed. I was reading recently about scientists studying these fungi as a possible cancer treatment.  They have already been shown to inhibit the human immunodeficiency virus type 1. It boggles the mind to think of all of the benefits to mankind that nature might hold. I found a honeysuckle doing its best to strangle an oak tree with its roots, but the oak was winning hands down.This elm tree was getting awfully cozy with this pine, but I wasn’t going to be the one to say anything. Times are going to be tough later on when the elm outgrows what little space it has left. I’ve never heard of one tree completely growing around and engulfing another, but loggers and arborists have found cannon balls, intact rifles, arrows, unopened bottles of beer and liquor, toys, tools, clothes, bicycles, and even car parts inside living trees after they had been cut down. False Solomon’s (Maianthemum racemosum) seal fruit is ripening. It won’t last long-I’m sure there are many critters that will be happy to see it. Ruffed grouse and many other birds also eat this fruit, but most animals won’t eat the bitter tasting leaves. Deer will occasionally browse on them if they are hungry enough. Another important food for wildlife is the hazelnut (Corylus americana,) also called filberts. This bush was absolutely loaded with immature nuts ripening in their strange looking husks. American hazelnut is native to the eastern United States. Unlike many nuts, hazelnuts don’t need to be roasted before being eaten. They can be eaten raw or dried and ground into flour. Native Americans used them to flavor soups. Hazelnuts have a much higher nutritional value than acorns or beech nuts so they are the first choice of many animals and birds. When I was admiring the hazelnuts it started raining so I snatched one of the nut clusters off the bush and brought it home. This is what it looked like-a cluster with 5 unripe nuts in it.   When they are near a water source royal ferns (Osmunda regalis) can grow quite large and appear to be a shrub. These in the photo were about chest high. The royal fern is found on every continent except Australia, making it one of the most widespread of all living species. They are also thought to be one of the oldest living things, with fossil records of the Osmundaceae family dating back over 300 million years. Individual plants are believed to be able to live for over 100 years. Cinnamon and interrupted ferns are also in the Osmundaceae family. It is thought that the genus might have been named after King Osmund, who ruled in the British Isles in the eighth century. Royal ferns are one of my favorites because they are so unlike any other fern. When I was a boy we called the frothy foam created by the spittlebug snake spit.  Of course, it has nothing to do with snakes because it is spittlebug nymphs and adults that create the foam while feeding on plant sap. Spittlebugs, both adults and immature nymphs, feed with their head pointed downward. As the sap flows through their body and then drips down their abdomen they mix it with air inside a chamber on their abdomen to make it frothy. This froth or foam is used to both hide the young spittlebug and to keep it cooler. I found this example on a goldenrod stem.

My heart is tuned to the quietness that the stillness of nature inspires ~Hazrat Inayat Khan

I hope you enjoyed seeing those things that often go unseen. Thanks for visiting.

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Lichens, Fungi, Ferns and More

Here are a few more of those non flowery things I’ve seen that don’t seem to fit in other posts. Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum,) which is sometimes called brake, is easily identified by its shiny triangular fronds. What makes identification easier still is the fact that it is the only fern that has side branches. No other fern in the country has these branches, so it’s almost impossible to confuse it with others. Though I usually find this fern about knee high, I’ve seen it reach chest height under optimum conditions.I wish lichens were as easy to identify as bracken fern. This beard lichen doesn’t seem to have grown a whit since last winter, but since I don’t know how fast lichens grow I can’t be sure. I just realized that I’m not even sure how to tell if they are still alive so clearly, I’m going to have to study lichens a bit more. Leaf lichens don’t seem to grow very fast either.  This one is on a trail I visit regularly, so I see it often. It doesn’t seem to change much. I visited this red (orange?) jelly fungus off and on for about two weeks and saw very little change going on, and then it was gone. I don’t know if a critter ate it or if it just dropped off the branch it was on. Maybe it’s the old “watched pot never boils” thing with lichens and fungi. If I ignore them for the summer and re-visit them in the fall maybe they will have noticeable growth. These turkey tails (Trametes versicolor) look the same as the last time I saw them too. This poplar (left) and white pine were getting quite friendly there in the woods. They had grown so close together that if they had been the same species they would have grafted themselves together. As they get bigger something is going to have to give. I’m betting on the pine because they grow faster. When a fallen tree begins to break down into compost and return to the soil quite often seeds will fall on it and grow. When this happens the dead tree is then called a nurse log, because it “nurses” the seedlings into adulthood. I’ve seen one or two but they were impossible to get a clear picture of, so instead I’ve got this picture of what I call a nurse stump. The stump has obviously rotted to the point where seeds can germinate. I didn’t bother identifying the new growth but the way they are growing in a tight cluster seems to point to a squirrel or chipmunk hiding a cheek full of seeds. There wasn’t anything but moss growing on this stump but I had to stop and wonder what catastrophe might have caused such tortured looking growth, and what kind of power it must have taken to split it open. I love the bronze / maroon color, the wrinkled texture, and shine of these new leaves of the Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana) vine.  When it becomes heavy with small, white, star shaped flowers it will be a sign that autumn is nearly upon us. New Stag horn sumac leaves are also bronze colored in the spring. Many plants have new leaves that are colored differently than their mature leaves. The female Gray’s sedge (Carex grayii) have grown their spiky, battle mace-like flowers. The male plant has a single spike rather than the cluster seen here. This plant is usually found near water and ducks and other waterfowl eat the seeds.Meadow foxtail grass (Alopecurus pratensis) will look ragged for just a short time while the flower stamens wait for the wind to blow their pollen to wherever. It is one of the earliest flowering grasses and is sometimes confused with timothy grass, which blooms in July and August. Grasses are wind pollinated and most have both male (stamens) and female (pistils) parts. When the wind blows the pollen from the stamens of one plant to the pistils of another, fertilization is complete and the plant will set seed. This grass was brought from Europe by early settlers to use as a hay crop, and it is still used that way today. This photo shows why you have to be careful where you put your hands. In the lower right corner, with three leaves to a stem, is poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans.) The rest of the picture is taken up by Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia,) which is a native vine that has 5 leaves per stem in this picture.  When it first comes up the leaves of Virginia creeper are red just like new poison ivy leaves. Each stem usually starts out with 3 leaves like poison ivy, but can have as many as seven when fully grown. Poison ivy can grow as a vine, just like Virginia creeper, so it can be difficult to tell them apart.  If the old saying “leaves of three, let it be” is paid attention to most people probably won’t get poison ivy. Still, if you spend much time in the woods it’s a good idea to study poison ivy until you know it well. I’ve seen more poison ivy this year than I ever have. This is the fruit of the sweet fern (Comptonia peregrine) plant, the flower of which I showed in a post on April 14 called Forest Beauties. The part that looks like a burr is actually a cluster of bracts. Inside these bracts are 4-6 small brown nuts (seeds) that are about 1/4 inch long and oval in shape. These seeds form in place of the female flower, which is red, small, and easily missed. Sweet fern foliage is very fragrant.These immature acorns were found on a red oak tree. It is estimated that a mature oak tree can produce as many as 5000 acorns.  From what I’ve seen oaks are going to have a bumper crop this year. An acorn can take 6 months in the case of white oaks, to 2 years for northern red oaks to fully develop. An acorn is “ripe” when the cap removes easily. Very heavy acorn production takes a lot of energy, and a tree might produce only a few acorns for 4 to 10 years after a season of heavy production. A tree called the Major Oak in the heart of Sherwood Forest; Nottinghamshire, England is between 800 to 1000 years old and has a circumference of 33 feet. Legend says that it was where Robin Hood’s and his merry men slept.

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts ~ William Hazlitt

Next time we’ll see some more wildflowers, so I hope you can stop in. Thanks for coming by.

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May Wandering

Special Note: In case you haven’t heard today (Saturday) and tomorrow nights are nights of the “super moon,” when the moon is expected to appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than at any other time this year. As if that weren’t enough, the Eta Aquarid meteor display also happens this weekend. Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post:

Every now and then I run across something that I think is really interesting so I take a picture of it. Then when I’m putting a blog post together quite often the interesting thing doesn’t really fit in, so it sits and waits for another post. This post contains all of those things that just wouldn’t fit in anywhere else. I hope you’ll think they are as interesting as I did. Opened cones of the Eastern white cedar or arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis.) I’ve seen many thousands of these but the color of these ones was simply amazing; a beautiful non-flower that looks like a flower. There was a big black slug beside these spring mushrooms, and I wondered if it had been eating them. From what I’ve read, this is most likely the slug called black arion (Arion ater,) also known as the European black slug, which is an invasive species. There is a catch all category of difficult to identify mushroom called LBMs, which stands for little brown mushrooms. Some are harmless and some, like those in the genus Galerina are deadly. They can grow in spring, summer or fall and are often found on logs. I wonder if they are toxic to slugs too. Oak marble gall. Galls can be caused by various insects laying their eggs on the twigs (usually a wasp.) The oak tries to protect itself by growing a gall around the insect eggs. Little does the oak know that this is exactly what the insect wants it to do; once the eggs hatch the larva eat their way out of the gall, leaving a tiny escape hole in the shell of an empty brown marble.  If you find one with no hole like those in the photo, an insect larva is still in residence. Iron sulfate mixed with tannic acid from oak galls made ink that was the standard writing and drawing ink from the 12th century until well into the 20th century. Some still use it today.

 This blue bottle fly was kind enough to hold still while I took its picture. I wish I could get a blue heron to do the same. Maybe I just have to start small and work my way up.

 This spent puffball caught my eye because it was bigger than a quarter. It wintered well. I don’t know what plant left these seed heads on all winter, but I like their furry, animal like appearance.

 I haven’t shown any lichens for a while, so here is a nice one. The rain we’ve had recently should plump most lichens up. Because this has a leafy look it is in the foliose lichen family. I haven’t shown any turkey tails (Trametes versicolor ) lately either. Here they are growing on a mossy tree trunk. I see them almost everywhere I go, but I’m still searching for a blue one. If I could find blue turkey tails and some blue lichens I’d be a mighty happy hiker.

These virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana) seeds shining in the sun were an attention getter. Virgin’s bower is our native wild clematis vine that blooms anytime from July through September. It is usually found draped over shrubs or climbing up trees. Clusters of small white flowers cover the plant, and the hairy looking seeds that follow give it another common name: Old Man’s Beard. I have the cultivated variety that blooms in the fall growing on a trellis in my yard. The fragrance is unmatched. 

 The very top of a pine tree broke off and was lying on the ground in the middle of a trail. My grandmother had a cuckoo clock that used metal pine cones as weights to keep the clock running and those cones looked exactly like this one. I remember as a boy wanting those metal pine cones very badly, but I can’t remember why. Maybe it was because they tried to be as beautifully bronze-like as the real one shown here.

 This lone milkweed was the only one to escape the roadside mowing crew last year, and then it stood all through the winter. For perseverance alone, I thought it deserved having its picture taken. This is another tree root that I thought looked beautiful enough to have been carved by an artist. The smooth, sanded and polished look that comes to wood from weathering is amazing, and I always wonder how many years it took nature to create such a thing. I have a bookcase that holds several wooden art objects like this, and it’s very hard for me to leave these foundlings behind in the forest.  And that is precisely why I don’t carry a saw. 

This is the kind of weather we’ve seen here this week. I’m hoping for clearing so I can see the moon this weekend.

The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.  ~Author Unknown

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these things that I occasionally stumble upon in the fields and forests. Thanks for visiting. Be safe in the woods.

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Forest Beauties

Flowers are beautiful and people enjoy seeing them but there is much, much more to nature than just flowers. Today’s post has a few flowers in it but also has other bits of nature that many may not see regularly, like a larch tree cone or iron ore in the form of hematite. To me these things can be every bit as beautiful as flowers, but they aren’t seen anywhere near as often. I hope others will see the beauty in them as much as I do.Accidently backing into the thorns of a Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) will get the blood flowing quickly on a cool spring morning. These odd but beautiful thorns always look as if they have been polished to me. They can grow to 4 inches or more in length and Civil War soldiers were said to have used them as pins to hold their uniforms together. Since the sweet, edible pulp on the insides of the seed pods is prized by animals, it is believed that the tree developed thorns to keep browsers away.  Thorns aren’t very desirable in most home landscaping situations so nurserymen have developed many thornless varieties which make excellent shade trees. Honey locusts can live for over 100 years and prefer moist soil. Groups of wild leeks (Allium tricoccum) are easy to see from quite far away due to the lack of foliage on the underbrush at this time of year.  These are also called ramps, which is a name that comes from the very old English. At this stage the plant reminds me of lily of the valley, which is toxic. False hellebore, which is very poisonous and grows at the same time of year, has been mistaken for wild leeks. The plant is in the onion family and is edible, but positive identification is important before eating any unknown plant. One of the obvious aids in identification is their strong fragrance, which to me resembles garlic more than onions. Other aids are the occasional purple or burgundy color of the lower stems and the small underground bulbs. The leaves will disappear before small white flowers appear at the end of a long, leafless stalk. These plants are so prized in some areas of the world that wild leek festivals are held every spring. These have to be among some of the stranger fungi that I’ve seen. They’re very fuzzy on the upper white part and “toothy” on the lower parts. Not surprisingly, I haven’t been able to identify them. In fact even after several hours of searching mushroom books and websites, I haven’t seen anything that even comes close to looking like these. Thanks to the book Lichens of the North Woods by Joe Walewski, I’m quite confident that these lichens are concentric boulder lichens (Porpidia crustulata). They grew on a boulder in full sun and formed somewhat concentric rings. There was also a lot of rust on this stone. Ferrous iron in stones, when combined with oxygen and water, can produce rust in the form of iron oxide. Speaking of iron in stones, Hematite is an iron ore that often forms nodules that look to be shiny black bubbles on the surface of the stone in the photo. When broken open hematite is blood red inside so it’s also known as blood stone.  The name comes from the Greek “ema” which means blood. Extensive hematite deposits can be found on a roadside leading north to Walpole, New Hampshire. Large drifts of bloodroot grew next to the wild leeks. I think I’ve seen more bloodroot this spring than I ever have, so maybe that’s a sign that it is coming back after being collected to near extinction. Sweet fern (Comptonia peregrine) isn’t a well-known plant because it isn’t at all showy. Sweet fern prefers very dry, sandy soil and often grows on road sides. It isn’t a fern at all but a deciduous shrub that grows to about 3 feet high. Its name comes from its fern like foliage which many describe as having a spicy or soapy fragrance. The shrub has both male and female flowers, which are seen here. The longer, cylindrical male flowers are in the form of catkins at the branch tips. The female flower always grows lower on the branch and is the smaller oval shaped, reddish catkin to the right. The tiny red pistils of the female flower are seen a little more clearly in the inset photo at the upper right. Pistils at this stage are ready to receive pollen, which the male flowers produce in large amounts. After pollination a burr like fruit with 4 seeds will form in place of the female blossom.  Rub a few leaves between your palms and you’ll never forget sweet fern. Tracy over at the blog called Season’s Flow likes lichens and fungi, so here is a beard lichen for Tracy and all of the others, including myself, who like seeing them.  If you’re curious about what is growing in Ohio Tracy’s blog is a great place to find out. Their wildflowers open before ours and their weather almost always comes this way, so seeing what is happening there is a little like seeing into the future. Right now they have violets blooming everywhere.I finally realized what these fringed wrinkle lichens remind me of-leaf lettuce! No wonder I can’t stop taking pictures of them. This one at eye level on a branch seemed to say “Hey, look at me.” I’m glad I did because it was a real beauty. 

This is a cone from a larch tree (Larix.) Native larch trees grow in wet places like swamps and wetlands and are the only conifers that lose their needles. They grow very straight and tall and have soft, light green, needle-like leaves that turn bright yellow before dropping in the fall. The unusual and impressive cones often stay on the tree for several years before they fall.  Larch trees can live for more than 200 years.I like wood. I like all of the fascinating things that nature does with it to make it so beautiful. I also like to read it to see if I can understand how it grew. All the little bumps and swirls on this piece tell me that it is burl and would probably make a beautiful bowl if it wasn’t so small. Woodworkers call these swirls and bumps eyes, and the more eyes a piece of burl has the more valuable it can be. Nobody really knows what causes burl figuring in trees but it is thought that a virus, fungus, or injury is the cause.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the forest beauty that is easily missed and often passed by without a second glance. Thanks for stopping in.

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