Week 3: Mushroom and Lichen Hunt!

Place: McCollum Park
Time: 2:05-3:35
Weather: Sunny! 
Temp: H 75, Low 63

Weekly Phenology Update:

You can kind of see how the ground plants grew a little taller and fuller, and the leaves in the background bushes became fuller.

The Sword fern grew taller and slightly fuller!

I forgot to document the 1 meter area last week, so I did some this week. I'm not exactly sure how big 1 meter is, but these spots would be interesting to follow.

Following the area behind and this tree! 1 meter.

1 meter picture. I will continue to document this area.

This Acer circinatum is sprouting more leaves. The leaves are droopy and there are yet to be any flowers underneath the leaves. Most are 9 lobed and have an opposite branching pattern. The wood is very flexible. I tripped over one as I was walking and it was hard and bent, but it didn't break. It just whipped back to place.

Vine Maple

This Atherium filix-femina is abundant in this area! Now that I can identify it, there is slightly less of this than Sword fern. Leaves are triangular and triple pinnated.

Lady fern!

Now, on to the mushroom/lichen hunt!

Last week I found a mushroom on a fallen wood log and posted it. 

Here's the before picture of the mushroom: 

You can see the gills of the mushroom well in this picture. They are long lines, and the outer side is smooth and creamy white. Very flexible. I'm pretty sure this is an Pleurotus ostreatus: the oyster mushroom. Its stems are absent and is saprobic (grow shelf-like clusters on dead logs). The cap is fan-shaped to kidney shaped. Margins are wavy and inrolled. The gills run down to the stem and are super close as a white/yellow color. The stem is absent (from what I observed). The flesh is thick and white, with an odor that is pungent but not bad. This is easily seen from far away, so the caps were pretty big.

Now here's this week's  picture:

It looks like a critter got to it, or a mushroom hunter. It is gregarious, lignoculous growing on a Red alder tree. The smell dissipated a little, but there was still a mushroomy smell coming from it.

According to my research, the four pictures below are also Oyster mushroom. It looks different, than the one above, but the descriptions fit. I also did a quick internet search and some oyster mushroom look like this. And they all smell the same.

It looks like the deadly Galerina or Psilocybe Cyanescens except it's NOT! There are no stems and it's not shiny/glossy/sticky or wet.  

The log looks like a nurse log, with bark breaking off everywhere.

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Here's a Hypogymnia inactiva, or Forking bone lichen. The lichen is hollow and tubular, with a white lobe at the tip and the inner color being a dark green/gray color. It's semi upright and medium sized with narrow lobes abour 2 mm wide. It was growing on a fallen branch of a Red alder. The lichen seems well grown in this coniferous forest area. It's been sunny lately, so the lichen could have thrived in the sunny warm weather. The bark was dry to touch, but not brittle, so there was some moisture to it. The ground was moist/wet though from the shade of the trees and the woody loading material covering the ground. The smaller debris the wood lichen was on was a mix of dry and wet twigs/leaves.  The area was in the open forest.

This lichen was growing on a branch that had fallen from the tree. It was laying on the ground with a 3.5-4 inch diameter at ~4 feet long. The branch was dry with a small percentage of moisture. The bark was an orange color on the inside. The soil it was lying on was moist, but not wet.

What the Forking bone was growing on. 

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Fomitopsis pinicola, or the Red belted polypore, is abundant on the trees in this forest. It is growing on a Douglas fir. It is a thick and woody mushroom that is tough to the touch. The surface top is red and orange colored, with occasional dark spots. The pore underneath is cream colored. It is saprobic on dead conifer wood (mostly snags; I found one growing on a live D. fir). It grows alone or with 2-3 other mushrooms. The cap is pretty wide across and deep. It's semicircular, convex and smooth. The pore surface is very small, but there are lots. The darker area in the picture directly below are the pores. There looks to be no stem and feels leathery and hard. It has a strong musky smell that is unpleasant for me. The area this mushroom was growing was in the shade, so I don't think the sun affected it greatly. It seems to do well in shaded and cool areas. It feeds on dead wood since most grow on snags. Most are high up, while some were close enough for me to touch.

Red belted polypore/ wood conk

Old Wood conk. Looks weird, but this is another form of the same mushroom.

Dried up Wood conk. This one is growing gregariously.

Someone tried the mushroom, but didn't like it. It looks burnt.

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Stereum ostrea: False turkey tail. 
I took pictures in different areasm but both are growing on dead wood. This one directly below is growing on a nurse log at the end, and it looks dried up and old. I touched it and it was floppy. The ends look as if it flaked off or was eaten. It could be dried up. The area this was in had the driest soil in the area. Everything was dry and brittle, except the log. So perhaps the sun dried the mushroom and made it crumbly.

The nurse log hosting the mushroom. You can see how the ground looks dry.

Different area: 

False turkey tail: Stereum ostrea. At first I thought it was a turkey tail because it looks like a clam/oyster shell. It was somewhat flexible and moved. But looking at the underside, the mushroom is white and smooth, with no noticeable pores. This is a false turkey tail. 

It is saprobic, living on dead hardwood and grows gregariously. There are gaps between the mushrooms so it's not fused together. It is fan shaped, kidney-shaped, smooth yet rough, semicircle, and has no stem. The colors are concentric zones with green and gray shades. Underneath is smooth and white/cream colored, The flesh is pretty tough, and there are a lot of flies around it. 

It was growing on a dead log with moss growing on it. The soil was very moist and it was growing in an area that usually has shade from the trees. It looks like the mushroom was growing for a while since it looks old, so it grew in the wet muddy weather. It's only been sunny recently and I know for a fact that these false turkey tails were here in the wet weather. It's kind of growing on its own near a few Western redcedar trees that provide it with shade. 

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However, I did find an actual Turkey Tail. It was difficult to take pictures of this without removing the mushroom, so I did the best I could and will identify what I observed. This Trametes versicolor is flexible, but it was also tough and leathery. I can see actual pores in the mushroom that are very tiny and abundant. When I touched it, it wasn't smooth, but had a slightly fuzzy texture. I'm pretty sure this is characteristic for the Turkey tail, but I'm not an expert. There is no odor coming from this.
The cap is circular and semicircle, kidney shaped, brown and red colored (for some).

It is growing on a Beaked hazelnut.

The Turkey tail looks fairly young and small. It's growing on a live tree/bush with moss covering the wood. It seems to grow well in the shade since the sun doesn't directly hit it. The soil wasn't dry, but it wasn't moist. The soil was moist, but slightly brittle. 

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 This is a Platismatia herrei, or Tattered rag lichen. It's a pale green with white on top, elongated narrow lobes with marginal isidia (shiny). Top surface is white/green/gray and bottom surface is white with brown spots. It's somewhat erect but drooping off substrate. The lobes aren't far apart. This area was dry, as the smaller twigs were more dry and brittle than the other lichen I found up above. This lichen felt dry and brittle, so I think it got sundried. It was crispy due to the recent sunny hot weather. It also grew in the open forest in low elevation in a coniferous forest.
  

Week 2: New Spot!

Week 2
Place: McCollum Park (new observation spot)
Temperature: 66 F; Sunny, then partly cloudy

Time: 1:25-3:05

My new central spot!

Cool spot I'm gonna follow too

I forgot to mention in my notes that I found a hummingbird! It was flying around the bare tree on my central spot's picture to the right, the big redcedar. I'm not sure if it was looking for nectar, but it kept going there. Maybe a nest? 

In this spot, I definitely found lots of sword ferns and underbrush, which kind of look like weeds so I assume they are weeds. I'm liking my new spot much better.

My sketch pad was too big so the scanner couldn't capture the whole page properly. It is slightly blurry and cut off at some parts. I'm going to have to switch to another notebook in order to scan properly in the future. If any TAs or professors want to see my notebook, you know where to find me.

Drawings 3, 4, 5, 6

Drawings 7, 8, and drawing of choice.

Two Drawings of Choice

Here are some pretty pictures of a "swamp marsh" thing near my site.

Here are some pictures of the flowering plants I mentioned in my journal.

I'm not sure what kind of bird this is, but it was calling for a while, like looking for a mate.

Blooming buds

I'm seeing more of these flowers on trees

These were on the ground that I haven't seen before. They must have started growing because there are a lot of them.

I found some mushrooms on a downed log! They look cool, and were the only ones I found. Kind of odd...

I'm pretty sure this is a weed. 

Week 1: Visiting McCollum Park

Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm

Place: McCollum Park

Temperature: Low 66, High 70 F

Weather: Partly cloudy, mostly sunny.

The spot I decided to focus on was McCollum Park in Everett. It's off of a busy freeway and transit stop. I haven't visited this park since high school, so I was excited to see it again! I've only been there running on the trail during cross country meets, so there wasn't much time for me to appreciate the plants and nature I saw (unless I fell, of course). I'd like to see how my perception has changed and what I've been missing these years. 
Upon entering the park entrance, there's a fielded area with a baseball field and bmx dirt rode area on one side, then the other a forested hiking trail that's popular with runners. As I walk to the forest entrance, a calming feeling overtakes my body. The previous loud cheers of people playing frisbee on the fielded lawn dissipated, and I was left alone with my thoughts and the sounds of birds chirping. After several minutes, I finally found a perfect spot for my central site. In this spot there are various plant underbrushes that I can yet identify, and different trees within the vicinity. It's a good spot to look for insects because there is a snag nearby.

I walked along the forest and decided on a couple of sites that I want to follow the changes of. But the main one I want to focus on is this:

In this spot I see sword ferns that look like they're withering away. They are a dull green color with brown tips and spots all over. The ferns look weak. The background trees, and the forest, is dominated with Western Redcedar. Everywhere along the trail there are redcedars that averages 2.5-3 feet in diameter. This is definitely a new growth forest, as the tree trunks are smaller and the height aren't as tall as an old-growth. The tree in the middle of this picture is covered in moss and is tangly. I'm not sure what the tree is, but it definitely gives off a creepy vibe. The underbrush doesn't look full right now. It looks bare exposing the dirt underneath. There are spots of green, but it's about 40% covered with plants and 60% soil/dirt. 

There wasn't anywhere to sit in this area, so I stood for about 15 minutes letting the surroundings be. As I stood under a redcedar tree, swarms of flies flew over my head. It was annoying, but the buzzing of the flies oddly gave me comfort. Another buzzing noise came, but this time it was harsh and loud. It was a bumblebee! I couldn't get a picture of it since it kept on moving, but I did learn that bees are coming out of hibernation in the ground right about now. Maybe there was a queen nearby?

I found some red alders and western red cedars in this picture. The alders have that characteristic white fungi scab on gray bark, It felt rough and bumpy, but also smooth at the same time.

I took a picture behind my spot. You can't see it in this picture, but there are actually houses behind this scruff of nature. This sure is an urban forest.

I found a small underbrush growing on a snag. I'm not sure what it is yet, but the leaves are bright green and small and pointy. This was going to be my central spot, but it looked too bare so I moved on deeper into the forest.
 

I took an overhead picture to show how young the forest looks.

Young forest. These trees are redcedars, alders, maple?

Sword ferns dominate the understory of this forest. The ferns are pretty small and wimpy right now. Most have brown coming from the roots. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't sword ferns indicative of the soil quality? Meaning the soil here is polluted.

This scenery unnerves me a bit. The trees are perfectly in line and all with similar diameters. The understory looks too perfectly created in this area. I'm pretty sure this was a restoration area, but it looks more like a plantation. Hopefully when the tree grows more it would look a little more natural. At least the underbrush looks healthy due to the Nitrogen in the soil by the alders.

It's odd. I see Douglas Fir pine cones, but I couldn't find any trees. Maybe I'm identifying the cones wrong?

I'm not sure what these plants are. But I think they are berry plants. These were one of the few blooming flowers on the bushes. I expect as the weeks go on, more will blossom. There were definitely a lot of the rounded, dark green leaves of the white flower and serrated leaves like the pink flower. The pink flower leaves felt rough and bumpy, while the white flower leaves were waxy and rough.

Salmonberry bush maybe? The leaves look like basil and mint leaves.

Moss growing on the redcedar. I wonder if licorice fern will grow on it too?

After about 40 minutes of walking through the forest, I headed back and found a nice little swamp/marsh area. The are was filled in dirty water, with a lot of plant debris (from what it looked like). There was a white foam on top of the water, and no wildlife on it except for flies hovering over. Maybe I'll follow this through the next 10 weeks. There was beaked hazelnut (I think) around this area.

The redcedar leaves are shown well here, with their characteristic scaly, waxy leaves. I'm not an insect specialist so I don't know what this spider is. But it made its home on the leaves of the Western Redcedar, waiting for the flies and mosquitoes that were buzzing over my head.

This little fella just hanging around near me. It barely moved as I was taking this picture.

The trails leading to my spot (50 sq. meters around my spot). I would say there's definitely more understory coverage of bushes than big trees. While walking, I didn't find any animals except for insects and birds. I'm used to squirrels being everywhere, so this is a bit odd. But the dominant tree species is Western Redcedar, the second is alder from what I observed. Currently the bushes are starting to blossom, but only a few have done so. Things are looking a dull green.

This is a nice forested trail. You can see where park trail staff logged a tree because it was a danger to people. It was probably in the middle of the trail.

Towards the beginning of the forest trail. Trees on left, bushes on right. And a random log hanging over. Looks dangerous.

While I was walking through the forest, I heard a chorus of birds chirping. It was magnificent! But it was sad I couldn't identify them yet :-( There were definitely 4 different types of chirps I heard.
One was a high pitched, short cheep chirp. I think it was a chickadee? Because I saw a lot of little sized birds flying around.
There was another bird that had a mocking laugh, deep sounding and mechanical, like a "ha ha ha you can't find me" kind of laugh. I think it's a woodpecker because I've heard this kind of laugh before in Seward Park, and people ID'd it as a woodpecker.
Another type of bird I heard had a melodic chirping. It was long, with distinct chirping that descended in tone. Looking in the bird guide, I think it's an American Robin.

I chased it down from the forest since I heard a lot of these suckers fluttering around but couldn't find it. To my luck, I found it in the open field, chirping. It had a complicated yet melodic chirping. It was long, with repeated cheeps that descends in tone. It sounded like how I would imagine a UFO sounds like.

Hopefully as I journey through this class my identification improves and I'll be able to ID the plants and birds I found in the park.