Anybody Seen My Focus?: Summer At Fort Yargo State Park: Shelter A To The Old Fort, September 14th, 2015 (Part 2)

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

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