Very early spring urban nature: Stony Brook Reservation

[urbpan]

Taking a look around the Stony Brook Reservation we noticed it was unusually dry: the little swamp I usually photograph was a mud puddle. Here what should be a lush carpet of moss is cracking as the soil below it dries and splits.


Here's something I haven't seen before: turkey tail mushrooms (apparently fresh, from whenever the last rains were) emerging from a burnt log.


Winter is gone, cry the pussy willows as they explode into flower.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Love that first photo.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

Great photos, and a question- what's the obvious difference between a turkey tail mushroom and the other one (chicken of the trees?) and are they both edible? I see lots that resemble them...can I cook 'em?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Chicken mushrooms (Laetiporus sp.) are much larger and fleshier than turkey tails, and are distinctively yellow-orange to pink orange. Turkey tails are thin and leathery, and you wouldn't be tempted to eat them, though some people make tea out of them. There are lots of shelf-like mushrooms that grow directly from wood; most of them are too hard or tough to eat, only a couple are thought to be good edibles. There are a few poisonous bracket mushrooms, too, so don't cook anything without positively identifying them!

You might also be thinking of hen-of-the-woods or Maitake, which is closer in color to turkey tails. It is also much bigger and fleshier, and always grows at the base of trees.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it! I was close, wasn't I? Sounds like I'd better stick with the ones I positively know, like the morel in your icon. Those, I grew up with.
Just had my first experience inoculating logs with Oyster mushrooms...it's an experiment.

[squire-jons.livejournal.com]

I like a lot of your photos but I never have a good comment and wish livejournal had a "like" button or something like stupid facebook.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I hear you, me too.

thanks for commenting!