Thursday, December 31, 2015

Summer On A Fort Yargo State Park Trail: Section B To The Dam, September 2nd (Part 3)


September 2nd. (Continued from… ). When I visited Fort Yargo State Park in mid-February, there were few signs of Spring. The only wildflower plants that were obvious were the leaves of Cranefly Orchids (Tipularia discolor) that I found in many places.


The route… I’ve described it here, here, here, and here This walk doesn’t have the variety of wildflowers as my other walk from the Group A Shelter to the Old Fort but it does have some gems. One of the Smallflower Pawpaw (Asimina parviflora) had developed fruit that, unfortunately, it had lost; the Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) Orchids had bloomed, and some Green Adder’s-mouth (Malaxis unifolia) Orchids had bloomed and two were setting seeds. For the moment, some wildflowers we still blooming but there was a lull between seasons. I had thought that the slime mold fruiting was done for the year, but I was in for a surprise. There were new fungi to be found too. 

No sooner had I started up the hill, than I found yet more…


mushrooms belonging to the genus Suillus. These had…


slippery caps. These were identified by friends on the Facebook Mushroom Identification Forum as Slippery Jill (Suillus salmonicolor). Mushroom s belonging to this species have a…


gelatinous ring from their veil that has a…


thick white lower edge that is quite evident in this bud. 

I found another pair of suillus mushrooms ‘hiding’ under a tree root still further up the hill. These were…


similar to the pair that I had found earlier in this walk; dry caps with no rings. These had been identified as Suillus tomentosus.


At the top of the hill, I found more Coral Slime (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa) fruiting bodies.
 
I walked down to the bench before the final climb up the hill. There on the ground was a…


feather. I think it may have belonged to a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). 

On the final section of the trail out of the woods, I noticed a flower than I hadn’t seen on the way in. Immediately, I realized that it was Carolina Elephantsfoot (Elephantopus carolinianus). I had been looking for this species for several years but had never found it. The reason that I hadn’t seen it was that the flowers close up at night and had not opened by the time I walked in.


The flowers are very similar to those of the Hairy Elephantsfoot (Elephantopus tomentosus) but the bracts are elongated and soft compared with the more triangular and hairy bracts of the Hairy Elephantsfoot. The other distinguishing characteristic of the Carolina Elephantsfoot were the…


large leaves on the stems of the plant compared with the lack of leaves on the stems of the Hairy Elephantsfoot; this latter species has a rosette of large leaves at the base of the stem. So, now I know for certain how to differentiate between these species. It’s interesting that, at least in this area, the Carolina Elephantsfoot blooms later than the Hairy Elephantsfoot. 

Out on the open trail, I found two different Eupatorium sp. The first was the...


Hyssopleaf Thoroughwart (Eupatorium hyssopifolium), and the second was the…


Lateflowering Thoroughwort (Eupatorium serotinum).


Brazilian Vervain (Verbena brasiensis) was still blooming in this same area.


A couple of small Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium fistulatum) were still blooming in the area under the power lines.


Then I noticed an old friend; Climbing Hempweed (Mikania scandens). There were lots of blooms but it took some work tracing the vine to find their…


characteristically shaped leaves.


The final spotting on the trail this week was Hairy Small-leaved Ticktrefoil (Desmodium ciliare), also blooming in the area under the power lines.

Identification references:
- Kuo, M. Mushroom Expert.com: Suillus salmonicolor
- Kuo, M. Mushroom Expert.com: Suillus tomentosus
- Messiah College: Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Elephantopus carolinianus
- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Eupatorium hyssopifolium
- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Eupatorium serotinum
- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Mikania scandens
- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Desmodium ciliare

Related posts:
- Summer On A Fort Yargo State Park Trail: Section B To The Dam, July 29th (Part 1)
- Spring Is In The Air: Fort Yargo State Park, Section B To The Dam, May 1st (Part 2)

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Summer On A Fort Yargo State Park Trail: Section B To The Dam, September 2nd (Part 2)


September 2nd. (Continued from… ). When I visited Fort Yargo State Park in mid-February, there were few signs of Spring. The only wildflower plants that were obvious were the leaves of Cranefly Orchids (Tipularia discolor) that I found in many places.


The route… I’ve described it here, here, here, and here This walk doesn’t have the variety of wildflowers as my other walk from the Group A Shelter to the Old Fort but it does have some gems. One of the Smallflower Pawpaw (Asimina parviflora) had developed fruit that, unfortunately, it had lost; the Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) Orchids had bloomed, and some Green Adder’s-mouth (Malaxis unifolia) Orchids had bloomed and two were setting seeds. For the moment, some wildflowers we still blooming but there was a lull between seasons. I had thought that the slime mold fruiting was done for the year, but I was in for a surprise. There were new fungi to be found too.


Finally, a couple of the seed capsules on the Hairy Angelica (Angelica venenosa) was ripening.


A little further along this section of trail I found a Yellow Patches Amanita (Amanita flavoconia) mushroom. The glossy surface on the caps of these mushrooms always look, to me, as if someone poured butterscotch sauce over them. Usually, the caps have yellow patches on them.


I checked fruit on the Green Arrow Arum (Peltandra virginica) in the little inlet just before the bridge over the big ‘canyon.’ It still seemed to be developing.
We had had a storm a day or so before this walk. Winds had blown some small branches from tall trees in the forest. I found some more interesting…


small bracket fungi on one of these branches. The undersides of these were quite different from the other brackets I had been looking at.
 
These brackets had gills. Superficially, they looked like the Gilled Polypore (Lenzites betulina). However, closer examination of the gills showed that they were more complicated than those of the Gilled Polypore. These gills divided periodically along their length. Only recently, I identified them as Daedaleopsis septrionalis. Since finding these brackets, I’ve found them on three more branches that had fallen from trees in this forest. I’ve been told that this species doesn’t occurred frequently in the United States. I’m inclined to believe It appears that they may occur more frequently than recognized because they are growing on branches in trees and we only see them when the branches fall.



The Bicolor Lespedeza (Lespedeza bicolor) bushes were still blooming further along the trail before it turned west.


A small Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) cluster was growing on a log.


Summer Oyster (Pleurotus pulmonarius) mushrooms were growing out of the top of a tree trunk that had been cut off. The tree was right beside the trail and, yet, I almost missed them; they were almost at eye level. They were a little past their best but still impressive. The largest was approximately six inches wide.


Another Hairy Elephantfoot (Elephantopus tomentosus), rare along this section of trail, was still blooming.


I found a striking mushroom, white with black scales, growing on a rotting log near where I had found the Little Nest Polypore. This was a Black-disc Lepiota, formerly Lepiota atrodisca, now Leucoagaricus atrodiscus. 

I walked a little further along the trail and was startled by some flashes of red off to my right – where there shouldn’t have been anything that was red-colored. I had to laugh when I looked. They were…


Strawberry Bush (Euonymus americanus) seed capsules that had opened to expose their brightly colored fruits. 

Sadly, the Ganoderma curtisii fungi that I had seen the previous weeks had disappeared. I believe that someone had collected them since they are believed to have medicinal properties when ground and used in teas. It’s important - although too late for these fungi - to note that it is illegal to collect plants or fungi in State Parks in Georgia. Collecting fungi robs people of the opportunity to see these fascinating fruits.


I was delighted to find that the Green Adder’s-mouth Orchid seed capsules were still developing nicely. I wondered how long it would take for them to ripen.


On the trail near the orchid, I found a single mushroom, a Russula sp., with a purple cap.There are at least five Russula sp. with purple caps and I didn’t have enough information to identify it further.


In the woods, the seed capsules on the Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) were still developing nicely too.


My final find, before I headed up the hill, was a cluster of mushrooms similar, at least superficially to the Suillus sp. that I had seen when I entered the woods. Like the earlier species, these had dry caps, but these had…


rings, indicating that they had veils. This was a different species, as yet unidentified species, from the one I had seen earlier on my walk. 

Then on up the hill. 
(To be continued…) 

Identification references:
- Kuo, M. Mushroom Expert.com: Amanita flavoconia
- Messiah University: Daedaleopsis septrionalis
- Kuo, M. Mushroom Expert.com: Pleurotus pulmonariusI: The Summer Oyster
- Mushroom Observer, Walt Sturgeon: Leucoagaricus astrodiscus
- Kuo, M. Mushroom Expert.com: The Genus Suillus

Related posts:
- Summer On A Fort Yargo State Park Trail: Section B To The Dam, July 29th (Part 1)
- Spring Is In The Air: Fort Yargo State Park, Section B To The Dam, May 1st (Part 2)