September Urban Nature Walk in the Riverway

[urbpan]

Despite the dry conditions, there was a bloom of reishi mushrooms coming from subterranean roots

Urban Nature Walk returns to the Riverway, on a quest to reach Ward's Pond, the spring that gives it water. I quickly got over doing an UNW on a Saturday (I have a mushroom class tomorrow) and met up with the group by the Longwood T stop. The first three to show up all brought gigantic cameras, so I will look forward to seeing their pictures, and linking you to them as well.



This is the underside of a weird gall--pro tip, if you want to ID a gall, know what plant it's on.
EDITED: Charley Eiseman identified this as a cedar apple rust lesion. The threads are the spore-producing bodies of this two-host parasitic fungus.


Here's the top of that gall--I think it's a tree in the genus Prunus but I'm not sure.
EDITED: Eiseman pointed out this is an apple tree (crabapple Malus sp.)


This fun acorn belongs to a bur oak Quercus macrocarpa.


Some very small creature--I think perhaps a moth caterpillar--lived in between the top and bottom layers of this leaf and chewed its way around.
EDITED: Eiseman said "Stigmella intermedia ..assuming that's Rhus aromatica." (so, yes, a moth larva--assuming the plant is fragrant sumac)


We saw a number of grass spiders (what I used to refer to as funnel web spiders until I was chastised by the Australians).


We did indeed find another mushroom: a previously harvested and partially regrown Laetiporus cincinatus


We made it to Ward's Pond! I saw lots of tiny dots on the waterlily leaves and assumed they were springtails. It wasn't until I blew this picture up did I realize that they were aphids.


The six survivors who made it all the way!