Playdough log

(Text in Spanish at the bottom: el texto en español sigue al pie de la página.)

On the outer shore at Oyster Bay, among the logs at the upper storm level, one log stands out. First, it's twice the size of any of its neighbours, a bit over 5 feet in diameter; even partially sunk into the sand, the top is at my eye level.

And then, it has been eaten away by teredos, water, salt and wind, rotted and bashed until it is shaped like a mass of childrens clay, squeezed and bulged and twisted. There's no bark left, and the wood is perforated by tiny holes, like a sponge. Mosses and lichens and jellyspot fungi have colonized it; winter storms toss broken shells on top; there are always a few rocks as well.

Yes, that's a log. With a nest of rock eggs. As found.

The roots of an old branch. And more rocks. A few blades of grass add to the life aboard.

On the next log over, because I could reach these: Jelly Spot fungi, Dacrymyces stellatus.

I've been asked to provide text in Spanish for the blog. Con gusto.

En la costa exterior de Oyster Bay (Bahía de los Ostiones) entre los troncos que descansan al nivel más alto de las mareas de invierno, un tronco se destaca. En primer lugar, porque su diámetro es el doble de los más grandes de sus troncos vecinos.

Y luego, porque se ha deformado de tal manera, por la acción de los teredos (almejas que parecen lombrices y que comen madera), por el agua, la sal, el viento, y todo lo que el viento y las olas le avientan; hasta que ahora se parece más bien a una masa de plastilina que los niños han machucado, aplastado y torcido. Ya no tiene corteza, y la madera está perforada con los túneles de los teredo hasta que parece una esponja. Allí crecen los musgos, el liquen, y hongos "Punto de Gelatina", Dacrymyces stellatus: las tormentas del invierno le echan pedazos de concha; siempre hay algunas piedras encima.

Orange bubbly

On a wintery grey day, on a grey shore, bounded by grey water and dark greyish logs, a patch of orange-peel brightness calls to me; I scramble and slide over slippery logs to get close to it. Cushions of brilliant jelly bubble out of a soaked log from end to end.

Good enough to eat, maybe*

I've always called this Witches' butter, Tremella mesenterica, going by photos and descriptions in my guide books. Recently, photos on the web are clearer, easier to blow up to see the details; I googled yellow jelly fungus and examined the photos that showed up.

It's probably not Witches' butter, after all. On E-Flora, I found many photos of Dacrymyces chrysospermus, no common name given. The photos match these, and now, knowing what to look for, I see the white basal attachments.

Tremella mesenterica lacks white basal attachment and grows on deciduous wood, besides being different microscopically, (Lincoff). Dacrymyces stillatus is smaller, simpler in form, and different microscopically. Dacrymyces chrysocomus is smaller, yellow, and cushion-shaped to cup-shaped. Dacrymyces capitatus is smaller, yellow, usually grows on hardwoods, and differs microscopically. (E-Flora)

So the witches are out of luck.

*Maybe.

Advice about edibility differs: not edible (Phillips), edible, but should be boiled or steamed not sauteed, (Lincoff). (E-Flora)

Cat's tongue mushroom

I found this growing under the pines in the Woodhus Creek woods.

Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, aka jelly tooth, cat's tongue, hedgehog. With globular springtail demonstrating the size.

I'd never seen a mushroom with two heads before, and leafed right past it in my Guide; it was among the polypores and tooth fungi, where I never thought to look. Luckily, I asked a friend, who identified it immediately from a brief description.

The mushroom looked more like jelly from close up. It felt like jelly, too; firm like the finger jelly I used to make for snacks, cool and damp, but not slimy or slippery. The flesh, of both stalk and cap, was translucent and slightly rough. There was no odor that I could detect.

Turns out it's neither a regular "umbrella" mushroom, nor a polypore, nor a tooth fungus, although it does have tiny teeth on the underside of the cap. It is a jelly fungus, like witches' butter or apricot jelly. The Latin name, "Pseudohydnum gelatinosum" means "False jelly truffle".

And it's edible, even raw, though the guide remarks that "it has little or no flavor." Besides, isn't it too beautiful to eat?

Butter and teeth

I found this fungus on a rotting stump on Baikie Island. (Yes! I found the way in!)

Unidentified tooth fungus.

I've looked in my mushroom guide, and scanned hundreds of photos on the web, and can't find any to quite match it. It looks, in spots, like some of the photos of Hericium sp., but the general structure is wrong. Or maybe it's a toothy polypore. I give up, for now.

At least this one was easy; it grew at the base of the same stump, and was what called me over in the first place.

Orange witches butter. With a curious sowbug, peeping out. A second later, he was back in hiding.

The bark of the dead stumps left here is almost all stained or burned to a deep blue-black.

More about the island, tomorrow.

Mushroom sampler

November is a good month to look for mushrooms and other fungi in the temperate rain forest. Even when the sun shines, it's never warm enough to dry the ground, but the temperatures are still usually above freezing. Every time I stopped, crossing the island this Friday, I found mushrooms almost with every step I took, and even up the trunks of trees.

And they're not the mushrooms I'm used to, from the Bella Coola or the Lower Fraser valleys. Of 20 some-odd different species I found, I recognized two, a yellow witches' butter (edible), and an amanita (not). I'll be digging through mushroom books and the web for a few days, trying to identify the others.

Witches butter on an old, burnt stump, with cladonia lichens and mosses.

Amanita, probably muscaria. 

Generic 'shroom. These are hard to identify, because they're so similar to many others.

Really strange mushrooms. The cap seems to be melting, but I didn't see any completely deliquesced ones. And the stems are all twisty. These were growing in semi-tame land; beside the road at the Park entrance.

Very tiny, tall mushroom. The evergreen needles give an idea of the size.

More tomorrow, after I've done my homework.

Of chewed wood, rock stencils, and walking on water

Our last trip to Crescent Beach was so productive that we went again this Sunday, in expectation of more great finds. Unfortunately, the tide was nearing its peak, and the remaining beach was lifeless. So was the water surface; nary a bird to be seen.

So we looked at rocks and logs, instead.

Empty sea, empty sky. On the left, the steps from 24th street, at the top of the cliffs, drop down to beach level.

Most logs float in without much damage, but every so often one looks as if it had been chewed.

Black rot or burn marks on a stump.

Beach rocks often incorporate chunks from various sources, creating interesting patterns, good imagination boosters. Laurie says these look like footprints; I see the whole section as a fish stencil.

And this is a pair of animals hiding behind a stump and keeping a watch out left and right.

Ok, now I'll be sensible. Is this a fossil of some kind? The rest of the rock is plain, smooth stone.

Something alive on shore; orange jellies on a blackened, rotting log.

Something alive on the water, after all; a man on a paddle board.

I grew up in boats, playing in skiffs and canoes. I'm fascinated by these paddle boards; it's almost like walking on water. I see people off on the horizon, standing on what looks like nothing at all, or skimming along silently, approaching those distant rafts of diving ducks, and I envy them.

I just looked up the price of one; over a thousand bucks. And I'd never get Laurie on one, anyhow. I'll contain my envy.

A Skywatch post.

Pink jellies

On the felled trunks beside the new beaver pond at Cougar Creek Park, we found this pink jelly fungus:

Popping through cracks in rotting alder.

They come in all shapes, from cups to tongues to buttons to blobs.

The tiny red dots in the wood at the top are more of the same.

This one is more fan-shaped; behind it is a tongue and a button.

I stepped over this rotting stick and missed the tiny candlesnuff fungus.  Good thing Laurie saw it.