Nature Reflections from a Wolf: Week Seven

Date: Sunday May 19th, 2013
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: ~60 degrees F
Time: 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Location: Discovery Park

Well, this week we were supposed to focus on mushrooms, but since that's all the good stuff, I'll save it for the end. In the meantime, here are some new phenotypic observations and plants.

First of all, we saw some Vine Maple flowering. An interesting fact is that this species is dioecious, meaning there are two different genders of the plants. However, one is male, while the other is hermaphroditic!

I love how the red flowers pop against the lime green of the leaves

We also found some Froghoppers (Cercopoidea) in their nymph state! Also known as spittlebugs, they are known for the froth that they produce as they develop into adults.

Bigleaf Maples are also fruiting. Their fruits are samaroid schizocarps; samaras are winged fruit, while schizocarps are fruit that splits in half when dry. Since these fruit do both, they are samaroid schizocarps!

Not quite ready to fly

Just a couple of feet away we saw an Araneae building its web.

The Indian Plum fruits are beginning to look a lot more ripe too.

We also saw an example of some not so wild wildlife...

Hard to see, but a kitty is stalking about

Also, another bunny! YayyyyyyyyyyyYY!

I just wanna pet you... and take you home...

Later on, as we continued our search for mushrooms (rather unsuccessfully), what we believed to be a Song Sparrow came along to serenade us. Unfortunately, it ran away when a dog came by.

Quite a few things are in flower as well!

Victoria spp.

Not really sure what this is

Not sure... maybe goldenrod of some sort?

Twinflower; flowers in twins!

Despite all our trudging around, we only found a couple species of lichens and a single mushroom. In fact, it wasn't until our way out that we saw a mushroom. At first, we thought it was a puffball, but after cutting it open, we found that it was really a gilled mushroom with a full veil. We decided it is probably a Shaggy Parasol. While we were poking around one of the mushrooms, a Diplopoda (millipede) decided to come out and greet us! It scared the both of us since we didn't expect the mushroom to be inhabited, but it gave us a great photo opportunity!

"Who's knocking on my door!?"

Cross section

In full form

We managed to figure out what we thought was Oakmoss Lichen

It took us a little while longer to figure out, but we also found a Hammered Shield Lichen and Methuselah's Beard Lichen. It was really cool to identify them because I've seen these guys a lot, but had no idea what they were, other than some sort of lichen.

Hammered Shield Lichen

Methuselah's Beard Lichen

Since we came up short on mushroom this week, I think I'll include a few other ones we've found in the past, since I don't think I really wrote about them at the time. The list includes Panther Amanita, Marasmius spp., Hare's-Foot Inkcap, and Oyster Mushroom.