Drove up road N.F. 6024 to Barclay Lake Trail head, followed access road for maybe 3/4 of a mile, came to 2nd washout. Numerous clusters to be found appearing to grow out of soil but after investigating found clusters growing from decomposing wood, allover washout. Oysterlike but w/ more promenant stems, Clitopilus prunulus has decurrent gills and equal to tapering central or off center stems. It was one of first very cold days,after carrying back wet mushrooms I couldn't feel my hands, however when I got them in an inclosed space and after drying they are still stinky.
Small abandoned snail shell found at the base of Wild ginger plant.
In the last stop we saw Stinging Nettle, but here we saw Devil’s Club, another dangerous plant. Do not touch this plant because it will cause lots of irritation. The plant has broad wide leaves that are great for capturing any light on the forest floor. The plants vary from one to three feet talk. The thorns on the stalks are visible even from a distance.
We saw a few Forget-me-nots that have long slender leaves evenly split down the middle, long fuzzy stems and small blue flowers with yellow centers at the top. There were many in the area we went by, probably 30 at least.
One of the exciting finds on our trip was Wild ginger! This plant has a heart-shaped leaves, fuzzy stems and a small flower at the base of the plant. The fuzz on the stems is very soft to the touch. The leaves have a net shape veining technique, which I drew in my journal. The Wild ginger had a very distinct ginger smell to it if you broke a leaf, which I liked. It was intermixed with other small plants that had yellow flowers. We saw about 10-15 of these plants in one area. The flower at the base is a dark purple color and hollow in the middle. The three petals peel back towards the stem.
On some of these trees we found exoskeletons of Stone flies. These were a little bit creepy because they were so large (at least an inch). At times there were as many as three per every square foot on the tree.
Came across a large Douglas fir at least six feet in diameter. We identified it by the cones on the ground and the bark of the tree. I have never seen a Douglas fir this large before. I want to make a note that while the first tree we saw here was a Douglas fir, they were not very common in the area.
we spent a little time in Tumwater for lunch. at this picnic spot, we saw the third and last kind of maple in Washington- the Rocky Mountain Maple (after vine maple and big leaf maple). i think it was said that this kind of maple is only found east of the mountains.
we stopped briefly in Tumwater, WA for lunch. at this picnic spot we saw a few interesting lichens growing on the trees there. one of which, pictured here, is called horsehair lichen (and felt as much), and was a very dark hue (i would say black) that very much resembled witch's hair. i put it under the same genus of lichen, but they say it's very difficult to distinguish species within the genus Alectoria.
for context, please see Daily Account for Money Creek, WA on 5/12. close to the road on the way back to the car we found many forget-me-not plants on either side of the trail. there are apparently fifty species of these flowers within the genus Myosotis, so i have no idea which one it is, except that it's certainly a wild species. they looked similar to ones i've seen growing wild at my house, except the blue color was much fainter- i don't know if this is a characteristic or if they had just been bleached by the sun.
for context, please see Daily Account for Money Creek, WA on 5/12. we found some wild ginger in the understory of the forest here. the flowers were hidden under the leaves (are the pollinators on the ground?). the leaves, when crushed, smelled amazing- very citrusy and strong-scented. it was not excessively common- we definitely had to look for the plants to find them, but once we did there were several in one area.
for context, please see Daily Account for Money Creek, WA on 5/12. i saw this fungi growing on the side of a stump, in addition to some mosses. i have no idea what kind of fungus it is. it looked like the stump was oozing candle wax in black and light grey, and it had clumped up and dripped down to varying degrees.
for context, please see Daily Account for Index, WA on 5/12. i found this cup fungus growing on the exposed roots of a large, uprooted tree that had fallen down. it was very dark brown/blackish on the inside, with an olive-colored rim, and they were pretty hard/tough to the touch.
for context, please see Daily Account for Money Creek, WA on 5/12. i was calmly appreciating the bark of this tree and observing the trunk (i believe it was a douglas fir), when suddently the exoskeletons of these rather alien-looking stoneflies appeared. there were larger skeletons, such as the one pictured, as well as skeletons probably an eighth of the size and others in between. there were several bunched up in the same area of the trunk.
With the hand lens you can see the tons of pores on the underside, orange-brown on top lighter cream-orange on bottom with pores.
Large, growing on side of log; white bottoms like an artists canvas, tops were brown and almost marbled parallel in appearance.
Tiny blue flowers (sky blue) with yellow centers and white at base of petals; creeping, growing a few inches off the ground, abundant on roadside for stretches at a time.
This was abundant all over this location, especially on the edges of the path; yellow flowers with dark lines (purple/black) in the center but weighing more on the three lower petals (there are five total), heart-shaped green leaves, basal; growing low to the ground.
leaves, seven toothed lobes, apparently white and woolly below (but I didn't know to check this); definitely hairless above; no flowers yet, growing amongst lots of yellow violets and false solomon's seal.
