So green

I've been off-line for a week, dealing with a few medical issues. Not getting any younger, and I'll probably be posting less frequently for a little while.

Now, where was I? Oh, yes; walking in the cool forest, looking at green stuff.

A sunny stretch.

Vanilla leaf, gone to seed. Achlys triphylla.

A rotten stump. Just below, the plants have their roots in water. Evergreen and bracken ferns, and the big leaves of skunk cabbage.

These tiny white flowers are everywhere down here. Foamflowers, Tiarella trifoliata.

Flowers like tiny stars, and large, green seed pods.

And this week, it has been cool and raining again. More rain coming, too. Vancouver Island weather is unpredictable.

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Otra vez he dejado de escribir, esta vez porque he estado enferma. Cosas de la edad; el tiempo no perdona. Ya veremos ...

Bueno, volviendo a lo importante; unas fotos de plantas de las sombras de nuestros bosques pluviales.

1. El sol se cuela entre las ramas, iluminando un tramo del sendero.
2. Hoja de vainilla, Achlys triphylla. Ya lleva las semillas.
3. Un tronco bien podrido, en el fondo del bosque. Las plantas, helechos perennes y helechos águila, y las hojas gigantes de linternas de pantano, todas tienen sus raices en el agua.
4. Estas florecitas, como estrellitas, brillan en las sombras. Flores espuma, Tiarella trifoliata.
5. Las cápsulas verdes contienen las semillas.

Hace ocho dias hacía calor, pero toda esta semana ha estado lloviendo, y dicen que seguirá. El clima en esta isla es totalmente imprevisible.

Escape

 Another rainy day. I had no power; BCHydro was replacing a pole. They had warned us that it might take all day. I packed a lunch and got out of town. On the highway, a road crew was clearing overhanging branches, everyone wearing yellow and orange rain gear. A man controlling traffic,  holding a stop/slow sign, wore a sheet of plastic under his rainhat, keeping water out of his collar. Freshly-cut wood shone out, as orange in the headlights as the raingear.

There was not much else to see today; rain clouds hung low over the trees; colours were all muted, dark green, darker brown, grey. The windshield wipers clicked, tires hissed over wet pavement. All very relaxing, something needed these days.

Near Big Tree Creek, the steady drizzle slowed, became almost a Scotch mist. I pulled into a logging road to eat my lunch, then took the camera for a walk.

A foretaste of what I found here.

On the way home, drizzling again, I stopped to look at a rain-swollen creek, in drier weather, probably a dripping hillside, maybe a rivulet.

The tapping sounds are raindrops on the car's roof.

Next: what I saw at my lunch spot.

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 Otro dia lluvioso.  No tenía electricidad; BCHydro estaba instalando un poste nuevo. Nos advertieron  que posiblemente tomaría todo el dia.  Me hice comida para llevar y me escapé del pueblo. En la carretera, un grupo de obreros estaba cortando ramas y árboles; todos llevaban trajes para la lluvia amarillos y anaranjados. Uno encargado de controlar el tráfico con su letrero "alto/lento", llevaba una lámina de plástico bajo el sombrero impermeable, para evitar que el agua entrara por el cuello. Madera recién cortada brillaba en la luz de las máquinas, tan anaranjada como la ropa protectora.

Aparte de eso, no había gran cosa para ver. Las nubes cargadas de lluvia cubrían las copas de los árboles; los colores estaban apagados, verde oscuro, café más oscuro, gris. Los limpiaparabrisas hacían su clic, clic, clic. Las llantas siseaban sobre el asfalto sumergido. Todo muy calmante, algo que hace mucha falta en estos dias.

Cerca del "Riachuelo del Árbol Grande" (Big Tree Creek) la lluvia se volvió más ligero, hasta hacerse casi una neblina densa. Me detuve en la entrada de un camino de madereros para comer, y luego salí a caminar un poco.

Foto: una pequeña muestra de lo que vi allí.

Camino a casa, veía chorros de agua que bajaban de los cerros. En verano, serían zonas mojadas nada más, goteando, escurriendo; ahora cantan y gritan sobre las rocas.

Video: los golpecitos son gotas de lluvia en el techo del coche.

Always green

It's not all bare sticks in wintery woods. Rotting wood provides a measure of heat*, retains moisture, and provides nutrients for a variety of plants that may even stay green throughout the cold weather, even under snow. A couple of old stumps illustrate this:

A very small stump, about a foot high, hosts mosses, bracken ferns, huckleberry branches. A short distance away, fern fronds were rimmed with frost. Not here!

Section of a tall stump. Mosses, lichens, licorice ferns, huckleberries, bunchberries. And wood in all stages of decomposition.

Stepping back from the same stump. A huckleberry bush is well established on top; just the base of the stem is shown here. The fallen leaves are alder.

Close beside a sheltering stump. Oregon grape catches fallen big-leaf maple leaves. The Oregon grape will stay green over the winter, or if the cold is too intense, turn red but retain the leaves.

*Rotting wood provides heat. Here's how a man even heats his workshop with rotting wood. No burning necessary.

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En un bosque invernal no todo consiste en palos pelados. La madera en su proceso de descomposición produce calor**, retiene la humedad, y brinda nutrientes a una variedad de plantas, que como resultado pueden seguir verde durante el invierno, aun bajo la nieve. Dos troncones viejos proveen ejemplos.

Fotos:

1. Un troncón muy chico, de unos 30 cm. de alto. Y allí crecen varios musgos, helechos Pteridium aquilinum, y arándanos (huckleberry). A una poca distancia, los helechos llevaban cristales de escarcha, pero aquí no.
2. Una sección de un troncón grande alberga musgos, líquenes, helechos de raiz dulce, huckleberries, y "bunchberry" Cornus canadensis. Y muestra madera en varias etapas de su descomposición.
3. Otra parte del mismo troncón, desde unos pasos atrás. En la parte superior tiene un arbusto de huckleberry bien establecido; aquí apenas se ve la base de su tallo. Las hojas caídas son hojas de aliso rojo.
4. Protegido al lado de un troncón grande, una planta de uva de Oregón (mahonia) detiene hojas caídas de arce de hoja grande. La uva de Oregón seguirá verde todo el invierno; si el frio llega a ser intenso, las hojas se volverán rojas, pero no se desprenderán. Al llegar la primavera, recuperan su color verde.

**La madera en proceso de descomposición produce calor. Aquí hay un reportaje de un hombre que calienta su taller a base de este proceso. Sin quemar nada.

Sweet root

 Just one more moss and fern photo.

These are licorice ferns, Polypodium glycyrrhiza

The Latin name means "many-footed sweet roots". It grows from a rhizome that meanders through the moss on trees and rocks, sending up shoots here and there along its length. And the rhizome, they say, is sweet and tastes like licorice. I've never tried it. I should.

Since the rhizome is so sweet even in its naturally occurring state, and since the chemical is not a saccharide, it is possible that this compound could be used as a natural alternative to traditional sweeteners. (Wikipedia)

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Otro musgo, con los helechos "Polypodium glycorrhiza". El nombre en Latín quiere decir "de muchos pies,  y raices dulces". Crece a partir de un rizoma (un tallo que parece raiz) que se extiende bajo el musgo, brotando hojas al azahar. El rizoma, dicen, es dulce y tiene sabor a anís. Nunca lo he probado; es algo que debo hacer.

De Wikipedia: Ya que el rizoma es tan dulce, aun en su estado al natural, y que la sustancia química no es un sacárido, es posible que esta sustancia pueda usarse como una alternativa natural en vez de los adulcerantes tradicionales.

All they need is a crack in the rock.

 Ferns on a cliff face.

Maidenhair ferns and moss.

The cliff faces Upper Campbell Lake. More on this location tomorrow. I did too much today; I'm off to bed.

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Unos helechos "maidenhair" (cabello de muchacha) (también conocido como helecho culantrillo) en un precipicio al lado del lago Upper Campbell. Habrá más fotos de este sitio mañana. Hoy hice demasiado, y me voy a la cama.

Curly

Sword ferns (Polystichum munitum) are evergreen and sturdy, although they do flatten out somewhat during the winter, and the outer leaves may die. In the spring, curly new leaves sprout rapidly from the centre, orange-brown at first, turning green as they open up.

New sword fern leaves, about 8 inches tall.

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Los helechos espada son perennes y fuertes. Crecen en la sombra de bosques, especialmente donde no falta el agua. Siguen verdes todo el invierno, aunque se aplastan un poco, y las hojas exteriores pueden morir. En la primavera, nuevas hojas grandes brotan desde el centro de la planta. Tienen un color café anaranjado al principio; al extenderse completamente, se vuelven verdes.

Frozen

Dead ferns, with ice crystals, on the shore of Roberts Lake.

Helechos muertos, congelados.

'Shroom heaven

The sun shines through dripping curtains of hanging moss, warming layers of black bark and orange maple leaves. Slugs feast on white mushroom meat. In the dark crevices between the fallen trees, polypore fungi gleam. It's fall in the rainforest.

Sunlight and hanging moss

Blending in. Big-leaf maple leaves and five big mushrooms to match.

This creamy-capped mushroom has slightly purplish grey gills.

Red-belted polypores with a pinkish cast.

Spore-laden firs and glistening mushrooms

These gilled mushrooms are common in the Grove. They all have freckles in the centre of a slightly pinkish cap.

Down in the mud under a log, we found these large, muddy boletes, identifiable as boletes by the dense pores instead of gills. I had to "see" them with my fingertips, as there was no way I was going to put my cheek in that cold mud.

More to come, tomorrow. This was a mushroom-rich forest!

Orangey.

With the cooler nights and the rainy days, deciduous leaves are starting to change colour. The bracken ferns are first in line.

These ferns like open, disturbed sites. This is a logged-off area, populated now by huckleberries, salal, trailing blackberries, mosses, and the ferns. A few trees are moving in.

Detail of fern branches.

Salmonberry is next. They're among the first leaves to show up in spring, and the first to disappear in the fall.

Ferns on a rock face

Throughout this long, hot, dry summer, mists from the falls keep the opposite rock wall moist and, wherever there is a toe-hold for roots, green.

Even on the sheer face to the left, constantly spray-blasted, two or three ferns have found a safe shelter.

Green tails, bears, lungs, and a smile

In our wet, shady rainforests, sometimes sunlight sneaks under the canopy with its yellow highlighter.

I passed the entrance to a trail leading down into a valley, parked, and went exploring.

All the colours of green

It was a short trail that dropped down the hill to a cleared area about the right size for a tiny cabin. It seems that was the plan; there's a good pile of alder firewood, sawed to small woodstove size, now gently rotting, soaked through and growing moss. Tipsy fence posts line the trail, and a solid cement block with a fluffy moss cushion barricades the entrance. No-one has been working on the site, though, for a few years.

A rusting iron loop embedded in the cement block, peeking through the moss.

The shady ground between trees is mostly covered in evergreen ferns, still dripping wet on this sunny afternoon. Mosses climb the trees and drape from bare branches.

Cat-tail moss and Licorice fern.

A Cheshire cat smile.

Thick, cushiony moss and Licorice fern on an old cottonwood.

Licorice ferns often seem to be growing as single stalks, as in the first photo above, but each stalk has sprouted from a long rhizome that runs along under the moss. The rhizome is brownish, up to a foot long; "they" say (but I have never tested this, because I am reluctant to rip out that beautiful moss) that it tastes of licorice.

Licorice ferns are interesting edibles. More and more restaurants are using them to infuse sauces, make teas, or serve candied. The anise-like flavor is apparent when the root is nibbled raw, but in a sauce I find it much more subtle, with a touch of a licorice sensation on the tongue and a hint of sweetness. (From Fat of the Land)

The fern fronds are evergreen, at least in our wet forests.

Unidentified moss on a stump.

I couldn't find this moss anywhere in my book. The individual leaflets (or are they clumps of tinier leaves?) are almost like miniature maple leaves.

At the head of the trail, where sunlight percolates through more consistently, recent wind storms had brought down large quantities of shredded lungwort from far overhead. I found a few overgrown trees within my reach, later on that afternoon, at Rock Bay.

Lungwort, a few other lichens, and a bit of moss, keeping the tree warm.

On this tree, the lichen is pale green and brownish; along the trail in the bush, even the torn leaves were much greener. This lichen absorbs water, much as moss does, and becomes green and flexible. Here it is on a rock in Bella Coola:

Looks good enough to eat.

 Compare those to this, on a dry tree at water's edge, exposed to sunlight and wind.

The little "warts" are isidia, reproductive structures.

Lungwort and a hanging clump of beard lichen.

A mouthful of centipedes

Rows of spores on a hart's-tongue fern in Laurie's shade garden.

Asplenium scolopendrium, I think.

A cluster of spores makes up a sorus, from the ancient Greek for "pile, heap". In the hart's-tongue, the sori are long rows; in our common native ferns, they're round dots. These long sori reminded somebody of a centipede, so the fern was named, in Latin, for a centipede: "scolopendrium".

(They look more like caterpillars to me, but according to the naming conventions, the first person to describe a plant or critter gets to name it.)

Here's the whole fern. And the fronds are supposed to look like deer's tongues. With centipedes on the underside.

The imagination boggles.

Textures and shapes: Green on green

Tall ferns cast their shadows on the skunk cabbage leaves in Cougar Canyon:

The ferns themselves are those blurry pale shapes on the left. The dark fern shapes are all shadows.

Slugs or snails have been at work here.

Busy day tomorrow; we'll be going to Deer Lake, weather permitting. Goodnight for now!

As promised: Green, green, green

And where the sunshine filters through, a bit of yellow. That makes Cougar Canyon a good place to visit on a hot day.

Reflections on the creek, with water striders and their circles.

More reflections

Ferns and a couple of skunk cabbage leaves

Lichen and mosses

Miners' lettuce

The creek rushing over a small drop

A skunk cabbage spadix, not ripe. We smelled ripe ones, but never saw them. 

Moss, bleeding heart leaves, and a brown shelf fungus, for a bit of variety.

Light and shadows

The Secret Garden, Batch Two.

Again, in no particular order.

Succulents, pink flowers, rocks, under a palm-like tree.

Maidenhair ferns

Rusty sign. Can you read this? I can't.

Red and white tulips

We found this pinned to a bench. Love never forgets.

Another fern, unrolling. Google has thousands of fern pics. I gave up trying to find the name of this one.

Old wood, California poppies, and ivy

Just leaves.

And there will be more tomorrow.