September 14th. (Continued
from…). 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 This is a rewarding
walk for viewing wildflowers and I’ve been walking it every week and
documenting the wildflowers that I see.
The 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. The fall mushroom season had begun as well.
In the sunny location under the power lines, several
Virginia Meadowbeaury (Rhexia virginica)
plants were still blooming. These had been blooming for some time.
The Strawberry Bush (Euonymus
americanus), whose leaves had turned red, was still dominating the
area.
The berries on the Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum), that had been black for a couple of
weeks, were still hanging on the plants.
I was surprised to see some ‘Honeycomb’ Coral Slime (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa var. porioides)
fruiting bodies on a rotting log by the first bridge. I’d seen them here before
but didn’t expect to see them again until next year.
Just over the first bridge, I found more Turkey Tails (Trametes versicolor) growing on a log by
the lake shore. In contrast to the Turkey Tails on the log in the open woods,
which were shades of gray, these were shades of brown.
Their white undersides, with pores, confirmed that they were
Turkey Tails.
The seed capsules were still developing on the Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata); these take a long
time to ripen.
The fruit on the Eastern Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus), completely ripe a couple of weeks previously, was
still attached to the bush.
Nearby, I found a fallen branch with a lichen with fruiting
bodies. This lichen was the Perforated Ruffle Lichen (Parmotrema perforatum) because of the holes in the bottom of the
fruiting bodies.
The seed capsules and flower buds on the witchhazel (Hamamelis sp.) were still unchanged.
When I reached the bridge to the Fishing Area, I found
another young Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachomys
scripta scripta) sunning itself on a floating log – or maybe it was the
same slider that I’d seen on several occasions.
The
fruits on the Buttonbush (Cephalanthus
occidentalis) were still unchanged from the previous week. It was easy to
see which flowers had been fertilized; their fruits were quite swollen compared
with those that hadn’t been fertilized.
To the right of the Buttonbush, a Narrowleaf
Silkgrass (Pityopsis graminifolia)
plant was blooming. This was the only place that I saw this species on either
of the trails I’d been walking.
My final find, before I walked on to the ‘Rock Garden,’ was
a patch of Dog Vomit/Scrambled Egg slime mold (Fuligo septica) fruiting body. This patch was orange-brown compared
with the light yellow patches that I had seen previously.
(To be continued…)
References:
Native and
Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Rhexia
virginica
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Euonymus
americanus
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Solomon’s Seal
(Polygonatum biflorum)
University
of Guelph: Ceratiomyxa
fruticulosa var. porioides
Mushroom
Expert. Kuo, M. (2005 March). Trametes versicolor. The turkey tail.
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata)
Mushroom
Expert. Kuo, M. (2008, December). Stereum ostrea
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Eastern
Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus)
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Rhododendron
canescens
Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria: Parmotrema
perforatum
Savannah
River Ecology Laboratory: Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys
scripta)
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Pityopsis
graminifolia
Messiah
College: Fuligo
septica
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