Show anyone you meet out hiking a fairly nondescript brownish-grey mushroom and they’ll probably tell you it’s a “deer mushroom.” But what actually is a deer mushroom, other than a catch-all term for things we can’t otherwise identify? It’s actually fairly simple. A deer mushroom (Pluteus cervinus) has three key characteristics: 1) it’s growing fromContinue reading “What is a “deer mushroom”?”
Tag Archives: hiking
Tree ID Continued: Oaks and Maples
Slowly but surely I am learning my trees. A couple weeks ago, in my post, “On Bark,” I wrote about ash, tulip, northern red oak, black locust and honey locust. Today I would like to add a couple oaks and maples to the list: Chestnut Oak, Black Oak and Sugar Maple. Quercus montana, or theContinue reading “Tree ID Continued: Oaks and Maples”
Late Spring, Mushrooms and More!
Morel season is in the books, but what we’ve lost in culinary thrill we’ve gained in variety. Has anyone else seen these?
On Bark
Tree bark is one of those things difficult to describe without metaphor. It’s also one of those things people can recognize without being able to describe (giving rise to numerous not particularly helpful youtube videos, and demonstrating, by the way, that we can think, or at least categorize, outside of language). Whereas leaves can beContinue reading “On Bark”
Nature the Bizarre
Today I’m going to show you some of the stranger things I’ve found hiking. Starting below, with some kind of coral fungus I haven’t managed to quite identify. I’ve seen this several times now, usually while poking around for signs of morels. The fungus above has become lichenized, which results in the green tint. AllContinue reading “Nature the Bizarre”
Three Spring Wildflowers
My first Indiana Spring has come and given me a chance to learn some new wildflowers. Above you see one of my favorites, cleft phlox. Below we’ll talk about three more! First up, the yellow trout lily. Called a “trout” lily because its leaves are mottled, or perhaps “dappled,” in a vaguely trout-like way. YellowContinue reading “Three Spring Wildflowers”
Early Spring Photos: Indiana
And now for an embarrassing story…the “corn flake mushroom,” as I called it in my head, turns out to be, after months of frustrating research (well, really just hours over the course of a couple months) the extremely common… Crowded Parchment Fungus, considered by mushroomexpert.com to be “the most common, ubiquitous, ever-present, lost-all-luster fungus amongContinue reading “Early Spring Photos: Indiana”
Confusion with “Sycamores”
If you look for “how to identify a sycamore tree” on wikiHow you’ll come across one of those innumerable American English / British English differences constantly under our noses and yet so rarely noticed. To identify a sycamore we are told, we should first check for “small woody balls,” like so and then, as ifContinue reading “Confusion with “Sycamores””
What’s up with this beech tree?
This time of year beech trees really stick out because for whatever reason, though their leaves die and turn a beautiful translucent brown, many of them remain on the tree, creating a sort of ghostly afterimage of the full grown summer plant. Like this: When I took a closer look at some beech trees onContinue reading “What’s up with this beech tree?”
recycled paper clips 