As we headed down into the pond drainage ditch…the Dog Lichen or Pelt Lichen(Peltigera) was spotted! So lucky to have another great find for the grasslands. So many treasures to be discovered.
Here is something else I have been waiting to see.. the Dog-lichen (Peltigera)! Jeanne spotted it as we were heading down the embankment into the ditch that feeds the pond. Jeanne has it, but I had not seen it before in situ. I was excited! And on the grasslands!! Thank you Jeanne!
We found about a half dozen different colonies along the sandy banks. The Dog-lichen was in with the Atrichum mosses. I still need to run the chemical tests and look at it under the microscope to determine which species. Such an exciting find!!! You can tell I was excited with the exclamation marks LOL.
In the woods, occasionally I run across young Prickly Pear cactus that starts as a finger shape.
This mushroom seemed to glow and its stem was brittle.
Before I could even test this mushroom, it was actively leaking its latex.
Jennifer, Thanks for visiting! I’m glad you liked the post. Next time I run across some of the Sensitive Briar (Mimosa quadrivalvis var platycarpa) seeds in the wild, I will gather a few for you. Sensitive Briar as the name implies is prickly. Another plant whose leaf folds is the Yellow Puff (Neptunia lutea) and it is not prickly. You might enjoy this explanation of the why the leaves fold…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thigmonasty if you have not already looked it up. 🙂 Both are wonderful native plants for our area!
We would love that! I looked it up and the plant we saw hiking in Kauai was likely Mimosa pudica and shares many similarities to M. quadrivalvis. I read there are over 400 species in this genus Mimosa (!). Also, I am glad to add “thigmonasty” to my vocabulary. Thanks for the fun education about the native plants!
So your M. pudica does look similar to our native species here, but unfortunately the species you saw in Kauai looks to be non-native. I found this blog post on it at https://keolamagazine.com/food/healing-plants-mimosa/
A great observation y’all made and still cool to see! I still have my eye out for some native seeds for you. So far none have had any. Keep looking!
Love all these lichens and fungi, Mary!
Jennifer, Thanks for visiting! I’m glad you liked the post. Next time I run across some of the Sensitive Briar (Mimosa quadrivalvis var platycarpa) seeds in the wild, I will gather a few for you. Sensitive Briar as the name implies is prickly. Another plant whose leaf folds is the Yellow Puff (Neptunia lutea) and it is not prickly. You might enjoy this explanation of the why the leaves fold…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thigmonasty if you have not already looked it up. 🙂 Both are wonderful native plants for our area!
We would love that! I looked it up and the plant we saw hiking in Kauai was likely Mimosa pudica and shares many similarities to M. quadrivalvis. I read there are over 400 species in this genus Mimosa (!). Also, I am glad to add “thigmonasty” to my vocabulary. Thanks for the fun education about the native plants!
So your M. pudica does look similar to our native species here, but unfortunately the species you saw in Kauai looks to be non-native. I found this blog post on it at https://keolamagazine.com/food/healing-plants-mimosa/
A great observation y’all made and still cool to see! I still have my eye out for some native seeds for you. So far none have had any. Keep looking!
The ends on the Peltigera are so fun!!! Congratulations on find!
Looking at the Peltigera this morning. Just started but I may have picked two different species. Wouldn’t that be fun!
Never seen some of the things you post. Thanks so much for sharing.
Very glad to share. Helps me learn too!