They use everything except the oink.

Already posted by cottonmanifesto

( Not too gross )

I hope you like mushrooms

I've taken a bunch of mushroom pictures lately. I'm putting together a field guide for vistors to use at the Sanctuary. I thought I'd share them here (and maybe at a couple communities), over a few posts.

Marasmius possibly buliardi or cappilaris.


( one more )

More mushrooms

I lent my two favorite mushroom field guides to a coworker (leaving me with the three inferior ones, and a bunch of ancient ones that I like but don't use), so I'm not positive on this one. Judging by the Audubon guide, they are Trichaptum biformis, but it lists two alternate scientific names Polyporus and Hirschioporus paragamenus. This might be a case where the common name is more useful than the scientific name(s).

Violet Toothed Polypore


I'm holding a small birch log here.

( Two more, more dramatic )

World's largest organism? Probably not. Not this one, anyway.

These mushrooms are the fruiting body of a fungus known as Armillaria. The mushrooms are known to foragers as "honey mushrooms." For a brief while there was a hullabaloo about a fungus being the world's largest organism. But it's probably not really. This is the same kind of fungus. It parasitizes tree roots, killing trees and feeding on the dead wood. A huge dead maple or ash blew over at the santuary last week; I found an old cluster of honey mushrooms at the base of the stump.

Big black

Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar Ecpantheria scribonia

The Charles River