Beech Blight Aphids Beech blight aphids are funny little insects that feed on the sap of beech trees. They have fluffy white appendages (I’m not sure what to call them) which they wag back and forth in a kind of dance. Apparently this is a defensive mechanism, although to me this would seem to justContinue reading “Recent Non-fungal Finds”
Category Archives: hiking
Russula Rainbow
Russulas are notoriously hard to identify, so much so that most of the time I don’t even try. However, this year I feel like I’ve made some progress due to some colorful finds. Russula is a large genus of mushrooms, characterized by brittle gills and stems. If you bend the stipe of most mushrooms, you’llContinue reading “Russula Rainbow”
August Photo Highlights
Mushroom Lingo #11: Punctae
I recently bought Boletes of Eastern North America, which has been a game-changer for identifying all those incredibly similar cushiony pored mushrooms we call boletes. One thing about it that has changed my mindset is that it starts off by closely examining the stalk. Boletes are divided into five groups, based on the qualities ofContinue reading “Mushroom Lingo #11: Punctae”
July Photo Highlights
Above: Clymene Moth
Mushroom Report: The Snaketongue Truffleclub.
Last week, as I was sitting down to photograph a small field of deliquescing Ochre Jelly Babies, I noticed a large matchstick looking club fungus sticking up out of the ground. My first thought was that it was one of the famous Cordyceps mushrooms which parasitize insects, for instance by hijacking the brains of certainContinue reading “Mushroom Report: The Snaketongue Truffleclub.”
Snow Fungus: A Tropical Edible in Indiana
I mentioned in a previous post that Snow Fungus, Tremella fuciformis, deserved its own post. Firstly because, although you wouldn’t know it from the looks of it, it is considered a choice edible, and is actually cultivated to the tune of over 100,000 metric tones a year1. Despite having little appreciable flavor, you can findContinue reading “Snow Fungus: A Tropical Edible in Indiana”
Chanterelles!
Chanterelles are out! The upcoming two months are the best time of year, in my opinion, if you are looking to harvest edible mushrooms for the table. I won’t go over how to identify chanterelles, as there are already plenty of resources on that. Instead, I’m just going to share some pictures of the differentContinue reading “Chanterelles!”
A Black Widow and other things I’ve seen in June
Black widows are one of those species whose name travels far ahead of their actual presence, so it was neat to actually see with my own eyes something I’d heard so much about. After seeing one I did some research and learned that though highly poisonous, a bite from a black widow is not soContinue reading “A Black Widow and other things I’ve seen in June”
The Ohio Buckeye
The Ohio Buckeye is a distinctively Midwestern tree, so much so that “buckeye” became a kind of metonym for the region and the early Anglo-American settlers thereof. The name “buckeye” itself needs explanation. The most commonly given one is that the shiny brown fruits resemble the eyes of a buck. The Ohio Buckeye belongs toContinue reading “The Ohio Buckeye”
recycled paper clips 