Growing in old growth Douglas fir forest with mixed understory species of Acer macrophyllum, Tsuga heterophylla, Gaultheria shallon, and Mahonia nervosa. It was fairly abundant both hanging from branches and on the ground from falling.
I believe our long dry summer allowed this Ganoderma to reach monumental proportions. Last year at this same time and in the same place the Ganoderma were already rotten.
This cute little gal was hiding under a mushroom. She had a white belly.
Growing on a decayed log near the trail. It had no bruising color change and an "earthy with a hint of lemon" smell. It also had honeycomb like pores and a chalky taste.
I did not have my camera when I collected this specimen. The photograph is after drying.
Off the Lower S. Fork Skok trail, on a decayed log beneath a 4 ft diameter Doug Fir.
I did not have my camera when I collected this specimen. The photo was taken after it had been dehydrated.
Found on Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees in the Olympic National Forest. I could see the lichen across a valley on the trees swaying in the wind. They can grow up to 3 meters long! Light green in color, fructicose pendulous thallus, with a central cord and numerous fibrils, they are indicators of clean air and are sensitive to pollution. A common name for this species is "Methuselahs Beard" or "Old Man's Beard".
Dried up but at least there was enough dew to make them pop.
Oh no, it's the scourge of the woods..
A big one floating just under the surface pushing a hemlock cone a head of it's self as it nibbled on it.
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.
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.
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.
It had five needles per bundle and it's not contorted and alpine.. it was at 2,000 feet. Some near it were dying. This is at the edge of high point of a dirt logging road. The road is FS 23 .
Not sure of the exact species..
This stuff only seems to grow where there is Old-growth nearby, it must be rather threatened.
One of the few giants left that survived both logging and the Columbus day storm.
Rhizomnium moss growing on a log near maidenhair falls
I think these are spider mites. They were all together in some moss.
The largest Reshi conk I've seen. It was laying on a rotten log. The rotten log had snake skin liverwort growing on it.
