A few more of our found things from Thursday. Some good and some not.
Trees and bushes are begin to bud out like this sumac (Rhus).
Black finger fungi were lined up.
Looking inside the dead wood, this fungus was busy at its job as well.
Purple-fringed Liverwort (Reboulia hemisphaerica). I saw another face. LOL
Neither Jeanne or I knew the identity of this small sapling. So I reached out to my tree expert, Suzanne!
Giving Suzanne the details, she came up with Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima). The little branches/stems broke off leaving its characteristic heart-shaped scar. Uh-oh, it was an invasive in Texas and the entire US. I found a good website to help with further ID’ing features, How to Identify Tree-of-Heaven. Of course I notified the Forest Service of its location. Thank you Suzanne!
The top of one of the stem was broken. Jeanne said it was two bird heads. I agreed. 😉
A cedar blob(sap). What creature do you see, a glass rabbit?
Greenbriar found a good climbing tree!
A bluebird nest box succumbed to time.. Some twenty plus years ago, I met a fellow that was putting up the nest boxes on the grasslands. He scoured new home construction sites to get scrap wood for his boxes. Some boxes are still intact. He even gave me a dozen boxes for our place. Mine have all fallen apart.
A grapevine found a fence to travel.
Possumhaw (Ilex decidua)! My friend Shirley used to like to decorate with these over the holidays. However, I found the berries fall off much too easy for my taste.
So we headed back to the car and Jeanne hauled a found blue bucket home. 🙂
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know
8 Comments
Y’all found some great stuff! Sorry about the tree-of-Heaven though.
Y’all found some great stuff! Sorry about the tree-of-Heaven though.
Thanks again for your help! Now I hope I can remember the info for the future. 🙂
Finger fungi look like they’re marching in line. I agree about possum berries
That bucket is a good find. I think I still have the pliers we found 20-some years ago???
Yeah, good tools are a bonus to a hike. 😉
Whatcha gonna do with that bucket Jeanne?
Buckets still in good shape are always a great find.
agreed!