Autumn

Jack-O-Lantern Mushroom Revisited

**Jack-O-Lantern Mushroom (Omphalotus illudens)**

Today is Halloween. Time for Trick or Treat. But don’t get tricked into thinking that this mushroom is a treat. Visually, *DEFINITELY*. But not a treat to eat.

Eat the Jack-O-Lantern Mushrooms and you will get treated to headache, stomach cramps, vomiting, and or diarrhrea. Sounds to me like a wicked trick.

Jack-O-Lantern Mushrooms are said by many many sources to have gills that glow in the dark. I have serious doubts about this, after many unsuccessful attempts to see this phenomenon myself. Don’t depend on this to determine what mushroom you have discovered. You’ll be asking for trouble.

This beautiful mushroom is found east of the Rocky Mountains. They’re very common here in the mountains around my cabin. And it’s often found in urban areas too.

They’ll sprout up in large clumps from dead trees, stumps, and buried roots of hardwoods, particularly oaks, in the autumn. The time of year, and the color of the mushrooms, has paved the way for it’s common name.

Have a safe Halloween, and remember don’t eat mushrooms that you’re not totally SURE about.

And Now Autumn

Gone are the days of carefree summer.

Oh but the things to come. Color. The color of Virginia Creeper with it’s crimson leaves.

Brilliant color. All the leaves that had been cool greens now becoming warm colors. Rich colors become ubiquitous. Red Maples turning red or orange or yellow.

Another Red Maple. This one scarlet with yellow as an accent.

PawPaw becoming chartreuse.

Sassafras uncertain if it should turn yellow or orange. But either one, rich warm color.

American Chestnut, yellow and rust.

All these colors. An invitation to enjoy the colors while they’re here.

Black Gum Tree

Tomorrow’s the first day of autumn. That’s got me thinking of what trees are going to be doing in the next several weeks. So many leaves. Leaves that will be turning the most exquisite warm colors of the color wheel. Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica) is one that comes to mind.

It’s a standout in its ability to go from rich emerald to an intense scarlet.

Those alternate and simple leaves are a bit thick and quite glossy on their top surface. The rich fall color a pure knockout.

Black Gum is a medium sized slow growing deciduous tree. This tree is happy in full sun and part shade and though it likes wet soil and will even grow in water-logged areas it does grow in dry areas too. So you can find it most anywhere up to an elevation of 3,000 feet.

Black Gum can live to be 650 years old, helping bees in the production of honey and providing berries for a multitude of birds. Native to eastern North America, from Southern Ontario to Florida and Texas. Its bark is said to be alligator hide like. The branches emerge from the trunk at very close to a 90 degree angle which I find to be a good way to help identify this species of tree. But give me an autumn day and I’ll pick out those luscious brilliant scarlet leaves. For me a dead giveaway.

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Creeping slowly. Beautiful warm colors. Trees preparing their shut down for winter. In just a few days it will become official. That calendar on the fridge will tell us so. Autumn will be here. As a tiny hint of what’s to come, this Virginia Creeper’s (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) compound leaf with each of its five leaflets has fallen from its vine after growing into its proper fall hue. The change will be dazzling.

White and Red Dogwood Berries

Autumn is approaching. The leaves of some Flowering Dogwoods are getting richer, more and more red. Their crimson berries, or drupes, are in abundance. This is the species of Dogwood that most people think of when “Dogwood” is mentioned.

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa). Two different Dogwood species. One of seventeen species native to North America. Like most Dogwood species, these two have opposite leaves as well as leaves with visible veins that curve parallel to the smooth edges.

Gray Dogwood’s creamy white berries are plentiful now too, much to the pleasure of Cardinals, Flickers, Downy Woodpeckers, Bluebirds and many other songbirds.

Flowering Dogwoods grow as single trees. Gray Dogwoods form colonies, by growing suckers and spreading. These dense colonies create a perfect space for nesting songbirds. Glad to see these berries. Autumn is approaching!

Winged Sumac

Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) making a not so subtle statement. Look out! Here it comes! Brilliant leaves here now. Rich red, warm orange, soft yellow. Fall is on its way. Use your observation skills. The colors are here and there. Look. Take note. Hints throughout the woods. Replacing the various shades of green with the spice of autumn. It is just the beginning. Things to come. Happening now.

Flowering Dogwood

The Flowering Dogwood trees (Cornus florida) here in my neck of the woods are just beginning to open as the Eastern Redbud blooms (Cercis canadensis) are on their way into decline. That’s the pattern every year. A slight overlapping of their big show. Like homemade vanilla ice cream with home grown strawberries on top.

In case you didn’t know, what are thought of as petals on a Flowering Dogwood bloom are not petals at all, but are modified leaves called bracts. The actual flowers of the Flowering Dogwood are those tiny yellow-green things in the very center.

No matter what the parts of a Dogwood flower are called they are a shout for glee in the mountains.

As the season continues and they’re no longer paired with their buddies, the Redbuds, they are still something that makes my heart light.

Something that calls to me to bring my camera for an outing.

As the light changes, another chance for an altered glimpse of those four white bracts with their yellow-green flowers.

Flowers on trees that intrigue me. Flowers that are just an added benefit.

And here a Blue Jay, an additional added benefit.

A Cardinal? What more could I want!

And once those flowers and bracts are gone, still pure delight as the seasons roll on. Be sure to watch those leaves. I kid you not, they begin ever so slowly to turn to red in late June. Slowly slowly slowly.

Autumn offers up berries for the critters of the forest. Berries that last what seems but a brief moment.

Hints of winter as the leaves fall. But look my beloved Flowering Dogwood trees are planning ahead. Those buds. That is spring on its way.

Spring indeed is planned for. Buds in the waiting. But the trees must go through winter. More delight!

That plan for spring the trees have made? They survive. They survive through snow, ice and cold. They survive through the wondrous winter and come into spring with blooms as their buddies, the Redbuds are blooming. Like homemade vanilla ice cream with home grown strawberries on top.

American Beech

Hawaiian shave ice. Snow collects in the cone shapes that American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) leaves make during the winter. It reminds me of a trip long ago. A trip to Hawaii to see a total solar eclipse. A trip to be introduced to Hawaiian shave ice, which brings me back to the subject of my post.

Beech trees are obvious during the winter up here on my mountain. They are a tree that is shade tolerant and will happily grow at an unhurried pace, just waiting for surrounding trees to decline and provide that lovely spot of sunshine. Their marcescent leaves make them stand out against the many gray trunks of larger trees. If not for the drooping sepia leaves that cling until spring their smooth gray bark would blend right in.

As the tree matures that smooth gray bark doesn’t change much. Whether a young tree or an older tree, it still looks like the skin of an elephant.

The leaves of American Beech brings to mind another member of its family Fagaceae, the beloved American Chestnut tree, which has a very similar, ocean wave edge to its leaf.

Another point that you might keep in mind if you are looking for an American Beech tree, is its leaf buds which resemble thorns. Nothing to worry about though. They look like thorns but they’re friendly.

Those leaf buds will expand come spring, the leaves unfolding into emeralds to decorate the summer vista. Then in autumn they will shout with warm color, yummy splendor.

In Praise of Blueberries

In my yard I’ve got a good number of mature blueberry bushes. Twelve? Fourteen? Enough that I can stock my freezer with loads of quarts of luscious berries to last throughout the year. And the birds? They’re welcome to their share. I love that the berries entice them.

Of the birds that come to enjoy the berries some are frequent visitors that I know well. A cardinal, a perfect example. Other birds don’t often make their presence known depending on the magic of camouflage to hide from my attentive eyes. A female scarlet tanager blending right in.

Each of the seasons provides a different aspect. A different way to appreciate the berries, the bushes. Winter with the buds anticipating the following spring develop sometimes encased in ice.

Winter as the rusty-red branches provide an accent to the snow that falls.

Spring with buds creamy white. Spring with buds soft red.

Spring and her blooms. A pollinators’ playground.

And then there’s summer. You know what that means.

Harvesting and eating.

Autumn celebrates with a brilliant palette. Sumptuous warm colors that tell me there is more to come with each season.

Can you tell? I am in love with blueberries and their bushes.

A New Season

Evening. Last day of summer 2020. I am SO looking forward to a new season. A change of direction. Some positive actions and thinking in all this insanity. Up instead of down. Bright instead of bleak. Health instead of sickness. Bring on AUTUMN.