Restoration Place

100 Species Challenge ~ #4 & #5, Mushrooms

On the heels of yesterday's mushroom post, I dug deeper to identify two of them. The first one was easy:

4. Lycoperdon curtisii:

This is the one that reminded Deb at As We Walk of a flower. It's a little wider than a quarter. Pretty, isn't it?

5. Coprinus plicatilis (Japanese Umbrella Inky/Fairy Parasol):

 

 

For this very difficult one, I turned to David Fischer, a North American mushroom expert on the ecology and identification of mushrooms at American Mushroom. Fischer is the author of Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America and Mushrooms of Northeastern North America. I emailed him a photo of the delicate, gray mushrooms and he very kindly (and quickly!) responded with his identification: Coprinus plicatilis. Thanks again, Mr. Fischer, for your helpful response! 

100 Species Challenge ~ #2 & #3

2. True Forget-Me-Not (Myosatis scorpioides): What a find! I've never, in all my years of searching for and identifying wildflowers, seen a wild forget-me-not. Mom first saw and identified it. One of the many joys of living near so many creeks and waterways.

 

3. Orange Jewelweed or Spotted Touch-Me-Not (Impatiens capensis): Easy identification and they're all over the place where ever there's water and woods. Did you know that you can eat the flower? Just peek inside and make sure an insect isn't sitting inside the "cup." More often than not, there's a little creature hanging out inside. Yellow Jewelweed has pale yellow flowers.

Here's how it grows in large bushes:

100 Species Challenge ~ #1 ~ American Beech Tree

1. American Beech

Silvery, smooth bark. Translucent leaves.

Leaf (looking a little brownish--notice the the "toothed" edge):

Beech nuts:

Our heavily wooded property is comprised mostly of American Beech trees, with a few other hardwoods and evergreens thrown in. Before moving to our current location a little over a year ago, Beech trees were somewhat mysterious trees that were only to be found in older-growth forests.

I've learned a lot about Beech trees by reading books about them. One of my favorites is Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest by Joan Maloof. Maloof explains the symbiotic relationship that the Beech tree has with insects, plants, and animals in a Beech tree woods. Fascinating reading!

100 Species Challenge

(Updated to revise for clarification)
I'm participating in scsours 100 Species Challenge.
I've been saying for a long time I wanted to keep a running list of all the flora the children and I identify locally. This is just the thing I need to get my scribblings off bits of paper and collected in one place where we can enjoy the "fruits" of our findings.

Melissa Wiley has graciously offered to maintain a list of participants and provided the lovely button for participants you see to the left.

These are the rules to follow should you choose to participate (provided by scsours):

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge. I will make a sidebar list of anyone who notifies me that they are participating in the Challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant’s home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears. My format will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of information I’d like to know. (See below for an example.) This format is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of the challenge to their needs and desires.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts. This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two–”camillia” if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge. You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like. I’m planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year. But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.

_________________________________________________________

Our first few identifications will be posted soon!