Today we have plant as well as seed+fruit (i.e., acorn) photos from Rik Gern of Austin, Texas. Rik’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
The following photos were taken in Eagle River, Wisconsin last September. What the seven species represented here have in common is proximity; they were all located in a six- or eight-foot radius of one another.
I was driving and enjoying the fall colors as they played out among the trees when I noticed spots of tiny red dots by the roadside. Getting out to examine them I found several clusters of British Soldier Lichen (Cladonia cristatella), giving the landscape an otherworldly science fiction-like look.
Of course, the Soldier Lichen were commingled with many other types of ground plants including these Crown Tipped Coral Fungus (Artomyces pyxidatusy):
A very common ground plant in the area is a moss known as Urn Haircap (Pogonatum urnigerum). Here it is with a fresh load of fertilizer courtesy of either John Deer or Jane Doe. All part of the landscape, folks!
Mushrooms are easy to find, but harder to identify. Seek by iNaturalist had a little trouble with the species on this log, but I believe they are Shelf mushrooms:
At the other end of the log was a small batch of Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus):
A surprise resident of this small patch of land was a lone Canadian Goldenrod (Solidago canademsis) plant. This was surprising, as I usually see them growing in clusters.
Hanging a few feet above this cornucopia were acorns from the Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra). I love the look of these seeds; they look like antique ornaments that were once beautifully carved, polished and buffed, but have withstood some damage over the years, but in fact they all popped out of the tree less than a year prior to the time the pictures were taken.
As I mentioned earlier, all these species were found practically within arm’s reach of one another, and there were plenty more attractive species that I just didn’t get good pictures of. It never fails to amaze me what you can see if you keep your eyes open. Endless forms indeed!
Beautiful pictures of acorns and leaves. They are small and common but wonderful when you notice them.
Gorgeous photos. Thanks.
It’d be so cool to build a kind of diorama from these – but alas, entropy takes over soon after, especially if hot glue is used.
Life, so beautiful, so fleeting…
/waxing poetic
We are Brobdingnagians in the land at our feet. That last photo is particularly fetching.
On our walks in a leafy suburban landscape with many creeks, my wife and I often pick up tiny relics of life forms for whom their anti-entropic processes have ceased.
Adding bits of stone and other detritus, we create little dioramas with them on a counter over our kitchen sink, and imagine ourselves hovering like raptors balancing the wind, momentarily forgetting the hunt and just savoring the view. Stalks of taller plants in slender glass bottles, plus wire and some other human-made artifacts, make for miniature cities in this topography.
It’s all there if only we just look.
Beautiful photos, thank you!
All of these are so interesting. I particularly like those bizarre Cladonia cristatella.
Beautiful!
Great photos! Thank you.
Neat photos. Some remind me of tidepools. Thanks.
Neat photos, thanks!
Very nice. Thanks.
Wow! Very cool pictures.
I don,t see a proof of evolution.
Many people don,t even know what a proof is in the natural sciences. There are no proofs of evolution, therefore it,s a hypothesis, a believe, a faith.
Do not moderate, please.
This is about the dumbest comment I’ve ever seen on this website. I don’t want to waste any time rebutting it (I wrote a book on evidence for evolution, you know), so I’ll put it up to show the readers that there’s still arrant ignorance about. And yes, you are moderated; this is the last time you’ll ever post on this website.