This week in the woods, we were tempted to devote the whole blog to mushroom photos, because the Summer 2023 fungi display continues to be epic. Case in point is this exuberant colony of Xeromphalina kauffmanii – a fun fungi name, and perhaps also the incantation you say during Hogwarts spell class, when you want to transform a rotten log into an army of pale orange mushrooms. One never sees just one of these little mushrooms – they appear in the hundreds, if not thousands, on rotting hardwood logs. There’s a very similar-looking species, X. campanella, which is more commonly associated with softwoods.
It’s blackberry and raspberry season, and birds, mice, bears, wild Brittanies, and other creatures are out there in the meadows, gobbling down the fruit – often before it even ripens. While blackberries and black raspberries can be hard to tell apart, there are a few easy-to-see differences, as noted by writer Rachel Sargent Mirus in this Outside Story article. Two differences that you can see this time of year are thorn shape (blackberries: straight, raspberries: hooked) and fruit shape (a picked blackberry has a fleshy center; a picked raspberry has a hollow center.)
We’ve been seeing an abundance of bright orange, tan, and white corals in the woods this summer, but even among the weird world of fungi, a bright purple coral seems exotic. Tig Tillinghast found this violet coral fungi (probably Claveria zollingeri) high up in the woods among oak trees – which makes sense, as these corals are closely associated with hardwoods.
Here come the katydids! Their ratchety, pulsing stridulations are a familiar sound of late summer evenings, but one rarely sees these insects because they’re so well camouflaged, and in any event, often overhead, up in the trees. We found this young insect (you can tell it’s young by its still-developing wings) at the wooded edge of a field, where it was feeding on milkweed. As Meghan McCarthy McPhaul noted in this Outside Story article, katydids and crickets make sound to attract mates, and they do this, “by rubbing the sharp edge of one outer wing against the ridged edge of the other outer wing – think of running your finger down the tined edge of a comb – as their raised wings vibrate together.”
During a father-son woods walk, J and Roan Cantrell discovered this cluster of brown cup fungi. We typically see these fungi (one of several species) in singles or small groups, but have never found them in such abundance. Brown cup fungi are yet another example of saprobes – fungi that break down dead materials – and some of them seem to be especially tough, by mushroom standards. One finds them in moist woods, but also in dryer conditions, such in lawns and fields.
Finally, we were excited this week to find our first monarch caterpillar of the season, munching away on the underside of a milkweed leaf. Here’s an Outside Story article describing the development of a monarch caterpillar that was raised by kids – and released as a butterfly – just yards away from where the caterpillar in the photo is living. Could this be the great-something-grandchild of “Hatchy Tractor?” It’s fun to think so.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.