HAMMOCK for Mundane Monday Challenge #130

 

Mundane Monday Challenge #130

 

FALLEN LEAF (for Mundane Monday Challenge #122)

It is mid-August, autumn creeps or is it the disease on the leaf?

for Mundane Monday Challenge # 122

Happy Monday!

BIRDSFOOT TREFOIL FLOWERS

 

On the ground by the parking lot of Bridgewater State University  near the Science building, these yellow flowers, Lotus Corniculatus or simply, Birdsfoot Trefoil,  abound.  Bees, tiny butterflies, and other insects were busy drinking from these flowers nectar.  These plants are perrenials, accordingly, in northern areas like MA, I suppose, they also go dormant during winter.

 

Apart from providing food for animals in the wild, Bird’s-Foot Trefoil, are used as ground cover and animal feed. On the other hand, they can also be invasive and harmful to other plants.

DAILY POST:  DORMANT

This is my first time to join – DUTCH GOES THE PHOTO:  Tuesday Photo Challenge-Yellow.

 

INDIAN PIPE, A Most Unusual Plant (WPC: Unusual)

While in a walk in the woods of Borderland State Park in early July, my eyes were caught by waxy white flowers not taller than 4 inches off the ground. It was the first time that I ever saw such a plant. They grew in the shady undergrowth of the forests and was likely to be obscured by decaying leaves on the ground.

When I looked it up on Google, I was first given the very useful answer – Plant. The more helpful sites, however, identified it as Indian Pipe, also known as Ghost Plant, also known as Corpse Plant. I thought it was a kind of fungi, but it turned out to be a plant, in the blueberry family at that. The plant has no chlorophyll and does not need light to grow, apparently. Thus, it can grow in the dark. According to one source, Tom Volk’s Fungus of the Month for October 2002, the presence of this plant indicates that the area is very rich with nutrients. Venerable Wikipedia says that “it is generally scarce or rare in occurrence”.

Check out the sources for interesting information about this plant.

Thank you!

WPC:  Unusual

 

MUSHROOMS IN BORDERLAND STATE PARK

Are these mushrooms of the same variety? The photos of mushrooms on the top left and bottom right are from the same mushroom, while the mushrooms pictures on the top right and bottom left are from the same mushrooms.

My main dilemma when I walk in the woods is deciding where to look: up, down, all around?  On our recent trek to Borderland State Park on Friday, a red mushroom along the path caught my eye.

Oh! A quick Google search indicated that these two mushrooms are different kinds. The mushroom on the top right could be a Russula. The top left and bottom right photos are from the same mushroom while the bottom left photo is of a mushroom nearby. I suppose they are about the same specimen..

On the other side of the path, another variety was in full bloom.  It was then that I decided to focus on mushrooms (more or less) during that walk.

 

Again, I assumed that these mushrooms are of the same kind. The big photo and the bottom left photo belong to the same mushrooms. The bottom middle picture was a photo of a different mushroom, while the photos on the top right and middle right are of mushrooms in another cluster. I grouped these photos together because they all have the warts on the cap. I figured that the mushroom at center bottom is the baby version of the others.

After all, there had been a lot of rain in the previous days, the ground was in fact quite damp during our walk, and it was humid – just the perfect conditions for mushrooms to shoot out.

 

This looks like a yellow mushroom. However, it also has some growths on the cap. Considering that the cap is not fully opened yet, this must be a relatively young mushroom. I thought the way it was opening looked like the fume mushroom in Plants Vs. Zombies. 🙂

While I was not a mycologist, and could not identify the edible from the non-edible, even toxic varieties, I was certainly beside myself with excitement to see the park and the undergrowth loaded with mushrooms of different kinds.  I was fairly sure, however, that the colorful ones were not good for eating.

 

This mushroom was growing on an open area. It looked like a white spiky ball lying close to the ground. Could this be a Gem-studded Puffball?

For this post, I tried to group together mushrooms that look alike to me.  Feel free to give me a feedback about the correctness of the grouping.  Descriptions (and even identification, Google permitting) of the mushrooms as I have observed them in the wild were also provided in the captions.

These are very tiny mushrooms with waxy caps and growing on a decaying log.

Unfortunately,  because  I was  taking pictures as fast as I could so that my family would not leave me behind and because I did not photograph the bottom of the mushrooms, I could not provide a better description of the species posted here.

They are about a centimeter off the ground. The caps were smaller than a penny and they grew in clusters. They were growing along the shady path in the woods.

THese may be the mature version of the mushrooms. The caps were about as big as a nickle.

I saw and took pictures of many other mushroom variety.  However, they did not turn out well.  And I am sure there were many other types that I saw but did not think of as mushrooms, and many more in the deep woods.

This was brownish white and the cap was about 2.5 inches in diameter. This was the biggest and thickest mushroom that I found.

I hope you enjoyed this mushroom gallery. Please feel free to identify the varieties you find here. Thank you.

At about 3 inches tall, this variety of mushroom was by far the tallest among those that I found in the woods. It had waxy, wet-looking, olive brown cap which was about the size of a quarter.

Daily Post:  Edible

WPC:  Collage 2

 

THE FISHERMAN (Black & White Sunday: Low-Lying)

I saw him from the top of the hill where a bird watching cabin was.  From there, one could see the river snaking below.   I was busy making sure my children did not do any foolish things when I saw this man.  The treetops opened up just enough to frame his solitary figure lost in his task.  He was not as alone as he might have thought but what he had was perhaps enough for him to collect his thoughts and even catch a few fish without any distraction.

~~~

Linking with Paula’s Black and White Sunday:  Low-Lying Theme.

ROSES

There is no rose that I do not like. However, this red, red rose, Velvet Fragrance, is one of my absolute favorites. Its flowers are not only big and luscious and deeply red, they are also very fragrant. Besides, they bloom well in the rather harsh environment that is our garden. The stems are on the thorny side, and the thorns are big, but Velvet Fragrance is a gorgeous rose and could be forgiven for all the blood it draws from me when I tend the plants.

This lovely rose is Westerland Rose. Under ideal circumstances, this rose should be climbing and cascading on the trellis. Our garden, with its clayish soil, however, is hardly ideal for growing roses. Yet, that did not stop this plant from yielding clusters upon clusters of salmon flowers come spring time. The flowers are also mildly fragrant.

 

A ROSE AND A SPIDER

The sight of a spider on rose petals gladdens me. The spider finds a home while the rose is rid of the nasty bugs that destroy not only the flowers but the plants as well.

DAILY POST: SYMBIOSIS

FALL BERRIES (Macro Moments Challenge: Week 15)

From Cee’s page, I learned about a new photography challenge – the Macro Moments Challenge. Since I take quite a lot of close up photos (perhaps by necessity, there being no scenic scenes hereabouts that would require panoramic shots 🙂 ) I am quite thrilled to find a place to inspire me.

This week’s theme is Fall. Apart from the colorful leaves, ripening berries are also something to look forward to. It is quite a thrill to see stems and branches laden with ripening berries in bright red or yellow. I found these berries on a bush by a roadside. I don’t know what they are and they may be even poisonous. But they sure are pretty and handy for the birds.

Macro Moments Challenge:  Week 15Macro Moments Challenge:  Week 15

Nikon 5300; 55-200 mm; f/5.6; 1/400; flash off; ISO 320; focal length 201.6mm