365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Coprinopsis Lagopus/Lagopides
Day 342: For all of the fact that my scientific friends regard me as a keen observer, I am usually quite oblivious to my surroundings insofar as other human beings are concerned. Thus it was that I surprised a man walking his dog in Yelm's Cochrane Park with a loud exclamation of my favourite scientific phrase, "What the hell is that?" In the next instant, I was on my knees in the wet grass, camera focused in on the healthiest of a dozen specimens of a thin-fleshed translucent mushroom shaped rather like our friend Myriosclerotinia. I soon discovered a few deteriorating examples which gave me a clue to the identity. If not a Coprinus (Inky Cap), at least they were related. Examining the area more closely revealed more with flatter caps; the upturned rim appeared to be a function of age. Man and dog joined me. "They're beautiful, aren't they?" he said. "Yes," I replied, "and I haven't ever seen them before." We talked for a while, but his curiosity seemed to end at identifying them as a "mushroom" as opposed to something else (what, I can't imagine). As soon as I got home, I hit the books and Google. Edit: my initial identification was in error. This is either Coprinopsis lagopus or C. lagopides, the latter being the most likely to occur in this area.
Labels:
Cochrane Park,
Coprinopsis sp.,
Yelm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment