September 14th. 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 and, at a time when I thought there would be fewer interesting observations,
I found that there were even more.
I stopped by the log with the False Turkey Tails (Stereum ostrea) that had been so
brightly colored the previous week. The color of these had faded considerably.
My next stop was at the logs in the young open woods just beyond
the pine forest.
The color of the Violet=toothed Polypore (Trichaptum biforme) brackets had also
faded during the previous week. The pores on the underside hadn’t changed much;
they were still half-way between pores and teeth. The name ‘biforme’ refers to
the two appearances – poroid or tooth-like – of the pore surface on these brackets.
The Turkey Tails (Trametes
versicolor) brackets had faded slightly from the even black of the previous
wee, and were
revealing more subtle, concentric bands of color.
Their pores were much more visible to the naked eye than
they had been earlier.
The Gilled Polypore (Lenzites
betulina) brackets had lost some of their yellow color but remained quite
brightly colored.
A reminder of the gills on the undersides of these brackets.
A little further along the trail the Small Woodland
Sunflower (Helianthus microcephalus)
plants were still blooming. When these first started to bloom, the leaf
arrangement along sections of the stems were alternate and I couldn’t identify
the plants. Later, the leaf arrangement appeared opposite and the identity of
these plants became obvious.
The seed capsules and their bright orange fruit were still
hanging on the Strawberry Bush (Euonymus
americanus). The leaves were starting to turn yellow.
The Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema
dichotomum) in the shade in the open area under the power lines were still
blooming.
(To be continued…)
References:
Mushroom Expert. Kuo M. (2008, December): Stereum ostrea
Messiah College: Trichaptum
biforme
Mushroom
Expert. Kuo, M. (2005 March). Trametes versicolor. The turkey tail.
Messiah College: Lenzites
betulina
Go
Botany: Helianthus
microcephalus
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Euonymus
americanus
Native
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Forked
Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum)
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