Yellow lights

The top of the hill over Elk Falls is shaded by tall evergreens, mostly Douglas-firs. Where the land has been cleared to make trails and the old wood pipe channel (gone and buried now) coming down from the dam, slanted sunlight reaches in and turns on little yellow lights.

Either Witches' Butter or Orange Jelly.

Witches' Butter, Tremella mesenterica, grows on deciduous wood, Orange Jelly, Dacrymyces chrysospermus, on coniferous wood. Apart from this, you usually need a microscope to distinguish them. Oh, and Orange Jelly has a white base, usually hidden.

More of the same.

A large fruiting body.

In deeper shade, tiny yellow clubs sprout in the duff.

A yellow coral fungus,Clavulinopsis cf. laeticolor, one of the Clavariaceae family.

Cell phone photo.

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Bajo los árboles coníferos que cubren las laderas del cañon donde corre, allá abajo en el fondo, el rio y las cataratas Elk y Deer, el suelo duerme en penumbra. Donde se ha abierto espacio para hacer senderos y el valle donde antes tubos de madera llevaban el agua que bajaba desde la presa, el sol llega a penetrar mañana y tarde y allí en los bordes del bosque, enciende pequeñas luces amarillas.

1. Estos hongos pueden ser o "Mantequilla de Brujas", Tremella mesenterica, o "Jalea Anaranjada", Dacrymyces chrysospermus. El primero crece en madera de árboles de hoja caduca; el segundo en coníferos. Aparte de esto, casi siempre se necesita un microscopio para distinguirlos. La "Jalea Anaranjada" además tiene un fondo blanco, pero esto casi nunca es visible.
2. Otro de los mismos.
3. Y otro, algo grande.
4. En la sombra, donde no llega la luz directa del sol, pequeños hongos cilíndricos brotan entre la bosta (la materia orgánica que se encuentran en el suelo del bosque). Estos serán una especie de la familia de los Clavariaceae.
   
5. Foto por celular.

A spot of cheer

I'm ending up the year posting photos of mushrooms. Maybe that's appropriate; many of them grow, preferably, in the secret dark.

But down there in the dark, there are still flashes of light and colour.

Orange mushrooms, Miracle Beach woods.

Orange jelly, possibly. Oyster Bay woods.

Witches' Butter? Oyster Bay woods. I like the way the sun shining through it warms the shadows.

Witches' Butter and Orange Jelly are difficult to distinguish without much close inspection. I could easily — easily — have mis-identified them.

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Termino el año subiendo fotos de hongos. Tal vez sea lo más apropriado; la mayoría de los hongos se hallan creciendo en lugares secretos y oscuros. Como lo fue este año.

Pero allí en la oscuridad, todavía hay rayos de luz y color. Como estos hongos amarillos y anaranjados.

1. Sin identificación.

2. Probablemente Dacrymyces palmatus, "gelatina anaranjada".

3. Tremella mesenterica, "mantequilla de brujas". Creo. Puedo estar equivocada.

Estos dos últimos se confunden facilmente; sin un examen con más detalle.

Whenever it stops raining

A dozen mushroom photos.

I find these encouraging, hope-inducing. Because it's blowing and storming outside these days, the forest floors and fern beds are layered with soggy, slippery, browning leaves, the night falls far too soon. And I have damaged my shoulder, and instead of getting better, it is stiffening and aching, possibly because of the cold and damp. Even my rain-loving cat has holed up under a feather blanket. I'm tempted to brood. To think that the forests and shores are closed to me now, until the spring.

And then, here are these mushroom photos. Taken in November, in December, even in January, of previous years. This weather is temporary, they tell me. The sun will shine again, on mushrooms and lichens, on tree lace and moss. It's time to dig out my winter boots and jackets. And clean the innards of my camera.

Down in the grass, Tyee Spit. October 30.

Amanita. November, Oyster Bay

Boletus, November, Oyster Bay

Slug-nibbled boletus and tinies, Oyster Bay. November.

"shroom, moss, evergreen needles. November

Those same boletus, on my return trip through the Oyster Bay woods. I liked the fern decoration.

These grow out of cracks in well-aged logs in the Salmon Point woods. December.

Salmon Point, December

Polypore on wet log, Salmon Point. December

And the end of January. Tyee Spit, after the snow melted.

On my favourite big log on Tyee Spit, January 29. All summer it sits there inert; any fungi are in hiding. They come out when it rains.

Log along the shore, Tyee Spit. January.

Now, where did I stash those boots?

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)

March equinox

First day of spring! I thought it would never come!

This calls for something sunny. Something yellow, maybe.

Fingertip yellow jelly fungus. (Tremella. See comments.)

Dead evergreen branch with a bunch of fingertip yellow fungi.

More yellow jellies, with a different growth pattern. On old log. (Dacrymyces chrisospermus?)

Very yellow jelly. With hungry slugs.

Baby yellow jellies on peeled log, with insect tunnels.

And the sun shone all day today. The sky was blue, the clouds white and fluffy. My forsythia is finally - finally! - putting out yellow-tipped buds, the crocuses are blooming in front of the library, and I found a clump of brand-new baby skunk cabbages. Yay, spring!

Spots on a log

Beside the path on Tyee Spit, there's a big, old log. I walk past it, barely giving it a quick glance; old wood, holes and cracks, small patches of moss, weeds trying to get a footing; nothing much to see, I think.

I was wrong. I stopped to look at a dusting of yellow jellies, and discovered much more.

Yellow and orange jellies. And three white dots.

I wondered about the white dots, and went around the log, taking photos of dots; spots too small for my eyes to distinguish details. The camera sees better than I do. See:

Bird's nest fungi!

I don't know what to call these. Cups full of rising dough?

Could this be one of the same species? And the hole where one broke off?

Could these be related to the cannonball fungus, which grows its spores in a ball and expels the whole ball with force (up to 17 ft. away) when they're ripe?

Yellow fingers. The largest is about 1/4 inch long.

A different kind of bird's nest fungi. With Cladonia lichen.

It's raining again. Cats, dogs, and the occasional small fish. And I've discovered another prime mushroom site. Rain, rain, go away! Please!

More Tyee Spit mushrooms tomorrow.