last photo has tristachyum to the right
On cottonwood.
Substrate: Tsuga canadensis snag
I most often find this species on birch, and every description I have found specifies hardwood only as substrate.
I believe P. squarrosoides has a history of being routinely misidentified as P. squarrosa, and the conventional wisdom is that they are practically indistinguishable macroscopically. However, I have concluded, along with many others, that they can be distinguished from one another based on the shape of their cap scales. My understanding is that the cap scales of P. squarrosa tend to be exclusively flattened/recurved throughout development. Those of P. squarrosoides are roughly conical, or claw-shaped, or irregularly clumpy when the mushrooms are young, and persistently so in the central area of the cap; as the cap expands, the scales closer to the margin tend to get stretched flat. With drying, the scales shrink and darken. I have also noticed from studying observations that P. squarrosa appears to fruit most commonly at the bases of trees or from the ground, presumably from buried wood, while P. squarrosoides most often fruits directly from wood.
I believe the abundance of images of P. squarrosoides that are misidentified as P. squarrosa gives the false impression of a complete overlap of macroscopic characteristics. I am skeptical of the current descriptions of these species, because when misidentification is so frequent, it's hard to know whether the descriptions were crafted around the actual species or misidentified specimens. For example, I have recently encountered a couple reports of alliaceous (onion/garlic) odor associated with observations that are clearly P. squarrosoides in my view. The conventional wisdom is that an alliaceous odor is proof of P. squarrosa; I now doubt this. Likewise, conifer wood is mentioned as possible substrate for P. squarrosa, but not P. squarrosoides. That doesn't convince me that my find here is P. squarrosa; I believe the descriptions are simply incomplete.
I find P. squarrosoides frequently in my local forests but have never found P. squarrosa. What I know of P. squarrosa comes from studying the observations of others. Observations from my region seem to reveal a pattern of abundant P. squarrosoides, and rare but not absent P. squarrosa.
Multiple in short grass. In the last photos the floret on the right is this species, and the right the associated yellower observation from a dryer location.
Specimen #1210. Collected with permission from the Water Supply Division of the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation. On stump in opening in mixed forest.
At Rock Point
On a sandy beach
On grape (Vitis sp.) with flowers budding.
There was a second pair of lines on the posterior part of the elytras, but unfortunately this one fell like a stone and disappeared (I sure did look!)
Lichenocolous fungi on hypogymnia
https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/woodsia/glabella/
Basal leaflets flabellate (fan-shaped)? Would be interewsting if it was W. glabella, because I was reading this article which mentions the plant this morning: https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2023-09-20/life-with-plants-vermont-state-botanist-retires-after-33-years
Growing on a cliff with many calcium indicator plants nearby.
Scattered throughout this forest; I saw one umbel with 6 flower buds. Some umbels in the forest with more flwoers, but many with fewer like these. Perhaps both species grow together here.
S. sericea seems like a good fit: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242417204
https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/salix/sericea/
Drier site for a willow. Edge of a field in a thin strip of first successional forest that's flanked by mature woods. Disturbed site.
Leaves not decurrent on stem
River shore outcrop habitat
reproductive stems partly green - could this be a cross between E. arvense & sylvaticum? Both are in the area.
Note that many fronds were conspicuously larger than any G. dryopteris I’d seen (though still within range for G. dryopteris according to FNA treatment). The key to this hybrid is the basal pair of pinnules on the 2nd pair of pinnae, which are strongly assymetric, indicative of some G. disjunctum parentage…even though that is a western species. I will return to collect fertile material later this summer (as long as I remember to do so). Habitat was a rich northern hardwood forest on a steep, bouldery, northeast-facing slope at about 1000’ elevation.
The Degraff Property (managed by Winooski Valley Park District)
Cottonwood with numerous Mordwilkoja vagabunda galls.
On Eastern White Pine.
Erupting from the bark of fallen paper birch log
Sreading on decorticated log. 24-63. Leaf shape variable from shallowly lobed to entire. Underleaves deeply bilobed with teeth beneath lobes (seen at top of stem in last 2 photos).
I’m thinking it’s Tilia americana but unsure.
on Apocynum cannabinum. voucher taken (S.B.Robeson #186)
By the snowmaking pond at Cranmore Mt
The Degraff Property (managed by Winooski Valley Park District)
Montshire Museum of Science (both native and non-native species introduced here)
Cobb Town Forest (Strafford)
Tick species ....... cookei
At the Helen W. Buckner Preserve at Bald Mountain
A population where characteristics of S. incurva and S. arcisepala seemed to blend together, with only a few clear examples of the former. Most plants were single-ranked, and only a select few were multiple-ranked.
NOTE: the plants pictured here are among the most similar to S. arcisepala, and may be rightly identified as such.
Growing with both progenitors along the base of a boreal cliff
Area heavily disturbed by flooding.
At Macrae Farm Park
The fungus: this observation
The host plant: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144528546
Novel Isoetes species collected by Mike and Sharon Rosenthal, being described by Carl Taylor.
New species discovered by @mirosen — thanks for showing me! (we put this plant back into the substrate)
Notice the gradual transition in sporophyll form from strobilus stalk to strobilus.
Annual constrictions visible (unlike D. digitatum), while the strobilus stalk is stouter than that of D. complanatum.