October Urban Nature Walk in the Dedham Town Forest

[urbpan]

My friend dedhamoutside and I co-led an Urban Nature Walk in the Dedham Town Forest (previously seen here). This sign is relatively new. On the one hand, it's nice for the town to recognize the Town Forest; on the other, now it's more visible for use and abuse. We set out with the intention to find mushrooms and other living things!



The coleader suggested we dress up for the walk, since it's so close to Hallowe'en. It's a nice jumping spider costume, but she was the only one dressed up.


Soon enough: mushrooms! Specifically, common puffballs Lycoperdon perlatum, with the ostiole exposed at the top.


The ostiole is the hole that allows spores to come out, bellows-style, when the mushroom is rained on or poked with a finger.


Just on the other side of the chain link fence we saw the remains of a small deer--the jaw still has some fur on it.


The pine needles underfoot provide foot and habitat for a fungus that produces thin graceful mushrooms.


A dead birch hosts an impressive growth of oyster mushrooms! (Pleurotus ostreatus)


Another chunk of dead wood and another big mushroom! Turn it so we can see the spore-producing surface, Jef!


Ah! It looks like Daedaleopsis confragosa, the thin maze-gill polypore.


North American witch hazel Hamamelis virginiana was in bloom throughout the understory of the forest.


We found wood-loving puffballs Lycoperdon pyriforme in impressive numbers on this log!


This was the most challenging part of the walk, a steep rocky slope that required hikers to use the fence for balance.


Zari was our youngest participant this time (six? I should probably know this) and my dad was at the other end of the spectrum, having turned 80 this year!


Not a great photo but one of my favorite mushrooms! Blue-green stain Chlorociboria aeruginascens is visible in the wood year-round, but only produces these little stalked cups when its good and ready.


One of many I had to admit I couldn't identify.


These handsome little guys might be Armillaria (honey mushrooms--edible) or Gymnopilus (poisonous) or something else entirely. Be careful out there, wild food foragers!


Not quite mushrooms but they act like them when they want to reproduce: These are the fruiting bodies of the wolf's milk slime mold Lycogala epidendrum.


Out by the road I found this big Agaricus mushroom! Another maybe edible maybe poisonous one, but best avoided--this specimen is too old too eat anyway--since it was growing on the highway shoulder it may be full of lead or other car-derived contaminants.


A hollow log provides surface for lichens and moss.


An old oak maze-gill Daedalea quercina is no longer producing spores, but persists and is now green with algae growth.


It wouldn't be a walk in the New England woods without a visit from a female black-legged (deer) tick Ixodes scapularis. This one left some of her mouthparts in my calf, which now has an itchy welt. Fortunately it takes several hours for the organisms that transmit babesiosis and Lyme disease to get from the tick's salivary glands into the bloodstream of the tick's host. I shouldn't have been exposed.


My self-timer is broken on my camera, so this is the best group shot I could muster. dedhamoutdoors got a better one, I trust.

Comments

Wow!

[dedhamoutdoors.livejournal.com]

That just might be the worst ever photo taken of me. I think I'm gonna make it my profile picture.