Seasonal observations, IDs, and stories.
First Quiet Voices of Spring The first colors beneath bare branches. Rue Anemones bloom after rain — fragile, pale, and brief — marking the quiet return of life to the woodland floor.
The Day of the Jumping Mushrooms Squirrel, Turkeytail, Slimespike. A morning story that changed under a spore print.
Turkeytail Pored underside. Concentric bands and fine pores on dead wood.
Blackening Slimespike Spore Print Gray/black spore print. A slimy cap and a Douglas-fir “jump.”
Funeral Bell Spore Print Likely the deadly Funeral Bell. Small, caramel-brown gilled mushrooms on moss covered log.
Mucous Cort Spore Print Cortinarius mucosus A soft, rusty spore print, its color—neither pale cream nor dark brown—marks.
Floury Amanita Powder-dusted caps. Pale, poised, and photogenic — admired, not handled.
Bleeding Bonnet Mycena haematopus. Three days beneath the trees — a quiet record of the Bleeding Bonnet’s surrender to another fungus.
Minnesota Lichen Guide Generated by ChatGPT. A concise reference for field identification.
Comparing Four Pine Species Austrian Pine · Jack Pine · Red Pine · Lodgepole Pine This guide compares four common or commonly planted pines in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.
