What in the Woods is That?

We spotted this bitternut hickory, bedecked in wart-like baubles, in Foley Park in Norwich, Vermont. What are all these bumps on the tree’s trunk and branches?

Reader Anjelica Carroll found these clumps of white hair just off a path at the Retreat Trails in Brattleboro, Vermont. What is this? (There’s a hint at the bottom of the photo!)

High up in a sugar maple, we found what appeared to be two partially completed circumferential cuts, as one would make when girdling a tree. What happened here? And why do the cuts appear…

While out walking on a little-used woods trail beneath a steep cliff in central Vermont, we found this patch of yellow moss attached to the vertical rock face at the base of the cliff,…

We found this insect, with a loooong backside appendage, lying dead on a sidewalk after a cold night. What is it?

We discovered this green orb partially wrapped in what looks like a dried leaf in recently disturbed soil near a field in Thetford, Vermont. What is this?

We found this seedling in the understory of a Vermont northern hardwood forest, sprouting what look like palm leaves, as well as the dark leaf in the center. What’s going on here?

While walking through a patch of brambles in Thetford, Vermont, we noticed many of the plants had bunched up leaves that were turning pink or brown at the center. What are these bunches, and…

This time of year, many native shrubs and trees produce fruits that attract wildlife and thereby help the plants to spread their seeds. Here are five native species and one non-native invasive…

We found these blobs with goo-filled craters on the forest floor in an area comprising mainly hemlocks and pines on an island in the Connecticut River. What are they?

If you gaze long into a forest ... the forest also gazes into you. With apologies to Nietzsche, we found these eye-like objects staring back up at us from a rich northern hardwood forest floor…

We found this glimmering beastie perched on a (non-native) lupine seed pod near a pond in Orford, New Hampshire. What is it?

Reader Ken Hatch found this small, green, spiky thing on a leaf near the White River in central Vermont. What is it?

A staff member found a mass of these bulbous pink formations on the stems and leaves of a wild grape vine in Thetford, Vermont. What are they, what makes them, and why?

Reader Jude Eldridge shared this photo (taken by her husband, Bill Duffy) of flies stuck to the underside of a beech leaf. What’s happening here?

On a recent walk through the woods, we saw what appeared to be a leaf crawling across another leaf. What is this?

A reader found these bright red forms among the leaf litter and spring ephemerals near the Northern Woodlands office, in an east-facing cove forest of mature sugar maple and ash trees. What are these?

A Northern Woodlands staff member was walking along a river in Virginia when she found this sweet-smelling, multicolored goo dripping down the side of a toppled stump, directly under some…

We found this mound, and four others just like it – each measuring approximately 2 to 3 inches wide, and each spaced at least a foot from the others – on a sandy hill in Thetford, Vermont.…