June Urban Nature Walk at Little Wigwam Pond!

[urbpan]

At the end of the last Urban Nature Walk my friend dedhamoutdoors suggested we walk near Little Wigwam Pond (this is pronounced "little wiggum pond" in order to differentiate locals from carpetbaggers). A couple days later she said she found sundew plants there, and I said "sounds good! you're leading!" or words to that effect.

This first picture shows the group exploring life along the train tracks.



Here's some of that life: moss and pixie cup lichens.


Some day I'll find a ladybeetle that isn't Harmonia axyridis. Today is not that day.


Small blooms of sheep laurel along the path. There were so many of us on such a narrow path that it was impossible for us all to be seeing the same thing at the same time. Most of the group got very excited about something, and I waited my turn to see what it was:


Oh hell yes! I don't keep lists any more, but this is a definite lifer, my first ever wild carnivorous plant, the sundew Drosera rotundifolia /


And the plant's prey! A nymph of a ground cricket.


It was dry, so these were shrunken and shriveled, but still a lovely pink. These are the fruiting body of the organism that Alexis calls "bubble gum lichen." Dibaeis baeomyces is a pioneer species that colonizes bare dirt, and is sometimes called "pink earth."


Tiny red-phallused trees are actually more lichens, something in the Cladonia genus.


Our walk leader referred to this as a "merkin on a log." That's pretty good--is it better than the accepted common name chocolate tube slime Stemonitis sp.?


Our walk leader promised "little red mushrooms." I was not expecting scarlet cosmic magic made solid.
EDITED TO ADD: Facebook identifiers have told me this is Hygrocybe cantharellus, the goblet waxycap.


A mysterious leaf gall of blueberry!
EDITED TO ADD: The mystery was complicated by misindentification! The shrub is Tupelo Nyssa sp. not blueberry. The galls are created by the mite Aceria nyssae. Forever thanks to Charley Eiseman for the ID (and for writing the book on invertebrate tracking).


These delicate pine-like growths are actually spore-producing plants called clubmosses. In dinosaur times (before flowering plants) these were the giant trees--now they are humble understory ground cover.


Someone helpfully painted directions on this tree. Unfortunately this hole goes right through to the other side of the hill, no underworld to be found.