Nature Noticings

Sulphur tuft mushrooms ( Hypholoma fasciculare ) are an appealing bright yellow, and as their name also suggests, grow in adorable clumps. Sulfur tuft They are not edible, but they do have a certain glow about them . . . literally. Some mushrooms, including sulfur tufts, are bioluminescent.  I've read that at night, you can capture their bioluminescence with a long exposure picture with a regular camera. You can see the glow more easily by shining a UV or black light on them. Since I first heard about their glow, I've wanted to try it -  and we found a big fruiting of sulfur tufts at Cougar Mountain today, so brought a little clump home. Here they are under UV light. Sulfur tufts under UV light Sulfur tufts under UV light Scientists hypothesize that the glow may help attract insects, many of which can see in the UV range. The insects might nibble on the mushroom, or even lay eggs on it, but as they leave they carry spores to disperse far from the parent mushroom. Or they're...

October is the time of the spiders in the Pacific Northwest. Just in time for Halloween, the orb weavers become massive and sling their webs across every available walkway and doorway. I walk around waving one arm out in front of me in defense. The orb weavers seem to have mostly disappeared now, as we are getting on toward the end of November. But I did find a beautiful spider the other day, one I've never seen before. I share with many others a (mostly irrational) fear of spiders, but as a gardener I've made my peace with outdoor spiders - and darn it, this one was almost cute! I found her as I was cleaning up debris from a recent windstorm. So pink and pretty! Goldenrod crab spider She's called a goldenrod crab spider. The spider expert from the Burke Museum confirmed my ID on iNaturalist, which gave me that happy, brush-with-fame feeling (definite Burke fangirl). I know she's a she because the males are darker with small abdomens. The blue background is the lid of m...

We're entering the dark days of winter, when any shine or sparkle is a welcome addition to life. Sometimes, that longed-for sparkle can be found in unexpected places. When we found this slime mold on a big downed log, I thought there were three different species (see the first three pictures). I collected some of each, and in a few days, they all matured to the same lovely, iridescent sparkle balls, the rarely found (for me, anyway) and delightful  Lamproderma!  The genus name means shining skin; you'll see why if you keep scrolling! I think this is Lamproderma columbinum* . The full development took about a week to record.  No stalks  Lightbulb moment!   Getting round Pink and pretty Getting darker And darker Mature Lamproderma - so sparkly! More sparkles! And now it is time to go out and find more sparkles; fill your world with them! *For the true slime mold nerds, here are the spores and details of the peridium (outer layer of the sphere). Lamproderma spores...