Index, Wa 5/12/12

Weather: Clear skies with temperatures in the mid 50's
10:30 am

We stopped off of the highway in a densely forested region of index. Since the region gets about 60 inches of rainfall a year, it comes to no surprise that the trees were almost entirely covered in various lichen, moss, and some licorice fern. We discussed the relationship the big leaf maple has with the epiphytic licorice fern. The deciduous big leaf maple drops its leaves during the winter time allowing for the licorice fern adequate water and sunlight. The licorice fern drops its leaves during the summer. The ground cover had wood and sword ferns, false lily of the vally, diaspurum, stinging nettle, and bleeding hearth. I noticed that serrated edges of the stinging nettle, and made a mental note to remember it's appearance. As we were about to leave, we came across two white rot mushrooms: Artist Conk and Polyporus radius. Despite surviving off of the same fallen log, they have pretty distinctive appearances.

Species List
Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)
Licorice fern (Polypodium glycorize)
Wood fern (Dryopteris expanse)
Sword fern (Polysitchum munitum)
Stinging nettle (urtica dioica)
Pacific Bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa)
Hookers fairy bess (Disporum hokeri)
False lily of the valley (Maiantheum dilatum)
Artist Conk (Ganoderma applanatum)
Polypourous badius

Publicado el junio 5, 2012 04:07 TARDE por lisettealbert