The spiky leaves can be seen with the naked eye. This is the first Sphagnum I have been able to ID for sure without help.
I found this on the West Fork Humptulips River trail in a shady old growth conifer temperate rainforest. I spend hours slicing and dicing and then gave up and asked for help.
3 bryologists said this is S. girgenohnii . One said that you can tell it in the field from the 5 branches that make it look star like from the top.
I learned a lot from keying this out, even if I had to do it backwards.
The stem corical cells show no fibrils and the branch cross section shows dimorphic cells and the branch leaves are eroded at the top and toungue shaped.
Growing in a swampy area not too far from some peat bogs.
Maybe a Cystopteris fragilis? Growing next the the outhouse with other ferns.
One of the ferns that I know for sure. I saw 4 different kinds of ferns next to the outhouse.
Pretty yellow flower in a swampy area, not too far from some peaty bogs.
My first attempt to ID a slime mold.. crustacea is the species I think. This was on a rotten log in an old growth hemlock forest. Subalpine, temerate rainforest.
Up in the mountains I saw this pretty lady slipper. I hope I got the latin name right. There was peat moss, trilliums and marsh marigolds on the same trail.
Lots of them in bloom now.. the snow was at about 1,600 feet in this cold pocket.
Up not too far from the snow line at the start of the trail with some Pellia..
I saw quite a bit of this growing here on the Church Creek Trail, but only on the Skokomish side of the divide. Between 1000-2000 feet roughly.
Some was still under snow, it was growing on seepy banks and not really in mounds.
These eggs were left high and dry when the lake level changed so I moved them back into the water. The lake is full of rough skinned newts and the eggs look a bit like them. The limbs have not started to differentiate from the bodies on the embryos.
In spite of being out of water the eggs looked healthy. I did not see the embryos moving at all.
This cutey played dead so I took advantage and took lots of pictures. She was at about 3,000 feet up in an old growth temperate rain forest.
Growning on a tree, confer I think in a seepy area. Leaves are falcate second and circinate. 2 alar cells at the extreme edge. Very fuzzy when dry.
Crenate stem cross section shows it had a hyaloderm.
Tricky genus, I did my best, I may be wrong. leaves were about 2mm long and less than 1mm wide.
Found at the head of Shelton creek. It took me a while to ID this because I keyed it out to Calliergonella cuspidata in two books.
But I did not see the definative clear cells in the stem. Then my BBS field guide came to the rescue again it suggested Pleurozium scherberi as a look alike.
Oh how silly I felt then as I reached into my curated moss collection and found the P. scherberi that I keyed out months ago.
Oh well at least I know for sure it's the same moss. I'm glad I kept my collection.
Cephalozia bicuspidata subsp lammersiana. How do enter a subspecies? Found on rotting log, the color caught my eye.. thought it was a Metzgeria then took it home. I used the BBS field guide to get to species and the Doyle Stotler keys in Madrono to get to subspecies..
But I could easily be in the wrong genus.
The proffessor pointed this out as Atrichum in Feb of this year and I collected it but only just now got around to ID ing it several months later.
A. selwnii was on the test but I have only found A. undulatum... makes me wonder..
Lamellae only 3-4 cells high, teeth geminate.
Growing on a log with lots of liverworts. I thought this was Hypnum but wanted to see it for myself.
This keyed out to sudetica, the only problems is this was on wood and sudetica is listed as growing on rock. The more keys I look at the more confused I get.
Leaves are slightly less than 1mm long and wide they are bilobed. If there are underleaves I don't see them, but that does not rule out under leaves.
Very clear trigones. 4-6 oil bodies in 30um angular cells.
The sparse geamme are cone shaped and quite unusual.
I did not see microcellous areas in my sloppy and way too thick stem cross sections.
Common name of this moss is "pipe cleaner" moss. This is the first time I have seen it dry and it does look more like a pipe cleaner when it is dry. This moss is found above 1,000 feet in the Olympic and the mats get more and more lush as the elvation increases up to a certain point.
I just wanted to share this picture of a banana slug Ariolimax columbianus sideways on a vertical moss face eating a leaf of some sort. The moss is rhytidiadelphus loreus
These were at about 3,200 feet and were just starting to open up. Think these are called "deer fern"
These were gregarious, growing at 3,500 feet on a dry ridge in the Olympic Mountains. I saw a faint veil remnant. The younger caps were umbilicate and black but they became flatter and yellower as they aged.
The yummiest wild berry of all is starting to blossom.
This was up near 3,000 feet in elevation on a trail side in the Olympic National Forest.
I like this stuff, it's easy to ID. Growing on a seepy trail with lots of sporophytes. Always a tall healthy looking moss. 40 lamellae 2-5 cells high that end before the bistrtsoe margin.
