Illinois Prairie and Monarch Butterfly.

From Kengi. There are bonus bees, too! Click for full size. Oh, the Monarch reminds me, we saw a tiny milkweed plant on the side of the road on the way to the camp. Such a surprise, so far from water. It had exploded, and I saved some of the seeds. I need to get those planted. And that Monarch, how breathtakingly beautiful!

 

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© Kengi, all rights reserved.

Beautiful Shrooms.

From Kestrel. Click for full size.

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This is called a “shrump”; it is a hump in the duff caused by a mushroom coming up from underneath. Just like a Christmas present, you can’t tell what’s in there until you open it.

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Inside the shrump is Russula brevipes.

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What on Earth is THAT? Well, believe it or not, this too used to be Russula brevipes. It was attacked by another fungus that is parasitic on other mushrooms – Hypomyces lactiflourum.

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Hypomyces lactiflourum is not always so “mushroomy” looking. Many times the host is so deformed you can hardly tell what it was. In this one you can even still see where the gills are.

© Kestrel, all rights reserved.

Books.

Ethno

A while back, I posted about this book. At that time, I didn’t have the book yet. I have it now, and it is a wonderful read, filled with great information. Some of it made me very homesick, like the entry for Hairy Manzanita (Arctostaphylos columbiana). The manzanita that grew in Idyllwild, Ca., is a different Arctostaphylos, but those differences are minor, and manzanita has always been used by Indigenous peoples in various ways. I love every single thing about manzanitas, and it makes me ache a little, just thinking about them. Patricia’s book includes a whole lot of plants I was not familiar with, and was not at all familiar with Indigenous uses of them. I learned a lot, and was delighted over and over again, like when I was viewing a photo of an older Indian woman wearing a pine nut apron.

The writing flows like water, and this isn’t just a story told, this is a text which provides learning, and a reference to all the wonders around us. You can order the book here, and I highly recommend it.