Saturday, December 19, 2015

Summer At Fort Yargo State Park: Shelter A To The Old Fort, August 31st, 2015 (Part 1)

August 31st. I started to walk again at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, Georgia. One of my favorite walks is from the Group Shelter A to the Old Fort and back.This is a rewarding walk for viewing wildflowers and I’ve been trying to walk it weekly and document the wildflowers I see.



The route, which I described here, here, and here. 

The early spring wildflowers have finished blooming; it’s time to watch the developing fruit. Summer wildflowers were still blooming but it was time to turn attention to the fungi in the woods. I found more mushrooms on this walk.


The first two mushrooms were amanitas, in the first instance… 

buds, and a…


completely opened cap - possibly Amanita velatipes. The second was also…

an amanita similar to Amanita flavoconia, although it is very pale compared with the ones I saw later. 

A little further along the trail, but still in the pine forest, I found a mushroom I saw the previous week, a…

Shaggy Stalked Bolete (Heimioporus betula). Something had eaten a hole in its glossy orange-red cap as well as a little off the side of the cap to reveal some of its pores. The red color was just visible under the shaggy stem. 

Nearby, I saw an old friend… Coker’s Amanita (Amanita cokeri). A small cluster of…

buds, and…

mature mushrooms with their characteristic tan scales and prominent veil remnants

Before I left the pine forest, I found another interesting mushroom, a…


Shaggy Parasol (Chlorophyllum rhacodes), with its wonderful…

double-edged ring. 


I stopped at the large logs just beyond the pine forest. A cluster of… 

true Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) brackets was growing in the moss on top of one log.

The colorful Gilled Polypores (Lenzites betulina), with their gilled undersides, were thriving on the next section of log.

A few plants of White snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) were blooming in the open woods just beyond the logs, as was a…

goldenrod (Solidago sp.)

The fruit on the Strawberry Bush (Euonymus americanus) were now pink but still not ripe.

The Small Wood Sunflower (Helianthus microcephalus) plants were still blooming quietly in the shade along this section of the trail.

The Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora) was still blooming in the open area under the power lines.

A Perennial Wildbean (Strophostyles umbellata) was still blooming, as was…

the Virginia Meadowbeauty (Rhexia virginica) were also still blooming at the lake’s shore. I didn’t realize how long these plants bloomed. 

I walked on into the woods. 
(To be continued…)

References: 
- Mushroom Expert. Kuo, M. (2013 May): Amanita velatipes
- Mushroom Expert. Kuo, M. (2010 March). Heimioporus betula 
- Mushroom Expert. Kuo, M. (2013 March). Amanita cokeri
- Mushroom Expert. Kuo, M. (2015 July). Chlorophyllum rhacodes
- Mushroom Expert. Kuo, M. (2005 March). Trametes versicolor. The turkey tail.
- Mushroom Expert. Kuo, M. Lenzites betulina. The Gilled Polypore.
- Native and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Clematis terniflora 
- Native and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Strophostyles umbellata

 
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