urbpan | Franklin Park, Boston, part two.

...Continued from my last post.

Despite being located in Boston's dense residential neighborhoods, some parts of Franklin Park seem quite wild. Puddingstone boulders dot the landscape.

I take this mushroom to be Caesar's Amanita--one of the few edible members of its genus found in our area. Don't take my word for it, I'm not enough of an expert to know for sure, and most of the related mushrooms are of the kind that land you in the hospital needing a liver transplant. (Field markings include the ball- or sack-like base at the stem, and the hanging ring higher up.)

The main field mark of the Russula mushrooms is the brittle, chalk-like flesh. Most often we see red-capped ones. Here's a crackled-top green one we've seen a lot lately.

This was just off the path. No explanations anywhere.

This stone fence made of Roxbury puddingstone is subsumed by black swallowwort, an invasive species of climbing milkweed. Unlike other milkweeds, it's not a host plant for butterflies. But it does share the toxic sap of the other milkweeds, meaning that it's not fed upon by herbivorous mammals either.

The dark brown starlike flowers of black swallowwort.

Japanese beetles are an invasive species most of us have gotten used to.

They always seem to be hard at work, mating.

I began with clambering, I'll end with clambering. A fallen tree leads into the pond--I love trees that have fallen into ponds! I get to be on the water, and in the treetop at the same time!