Monday 28 October 2013

Woodland Wander Part Two

Continuing the theme from yesterday's post, we look at some of the fungi, lichens and oddities we saw on our walk through the woods.

First the fungi....
 
 
Now the lichens..
And an oddity...

Lastly a treat; a mass of eating chestnuts....

So guess what we'll be roasting by the fire tonight!

3 comments:

Tim said...

The first picture is pretty identifiable, going on thye size of the Arum berries... Parasols... edible even if the slugs have got at the tips...
one of my favourites!!

The first lichen looks like a Cladonia... Reindeer "Moss"... and the railway modellers best friend!!

The second one doesn't look like a lichen to me... more like the dead flower spikes of the sedum below it!!

As for the bulge-eeee trunk... the bark and all the other straight trunks make it look like an Acacia plantation to me...
but I can't make out the leaves to be certain, just trying to go by the bark.

Therefore, something attacked the lead shoot when young and the tree defended itself....
in Kenya ants make bulges in Acacia to nest in...
bite the branch, wait for it to swell, chew your way in and set up home.

With this one, I'd surmise it was deer damage, either a bit of debarking, or antler rubbing....
one thing is for certain, a wood turner would give his eye teeth for that bulge....
it would make a fabulous pair of bowls or a vase!!

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Thanks for your comments, Tim. Do you think the second "lichen"could be Stonecrop? I'd not considered that!

Tim said...

Most definitively!! But which one?
There are four possiblies...
but going by the live bit, most likely Biting Stonecrop [Sedum acre] which is one of the most common...
and the reason the plant looks so wierd, is that the leaves up the flower stalks have all died and withered...
leaving just the lichen like scaley stems and dead flower...
very nice effect tho'.