Doubly Adorable

Day 321: Once again, this image falls into the category of "not a field guide shot" photos because only one of the subjects is in focus, but the "cuteness factor" inclined me to keep it. I had gone to this site specifically to check on the status of the pool and the vegetation surrounding it. for reasons entirely unrelated to its potential for frogginess, and discovered it to be populated with dozens of thumbnail-sized froglets whose species I could not determine without disruption. Many still carried stubs of polliwog-tails and had not taken on full adult colouration. Surprisingly, many of these froglets survive the winter by burrowing into the mud up to twelve inches where they hibernate until spring thaw. Frogs aside, the information I obtained regarding the area only served to add another layer of opacity to a greater mystery. Such is the way of science, whether in the lab or in the field.

Triteleia Hyacinthina, Fool's Onion

Day 280: Although Triteleia hyacinthina has other common names ("White Brodiaea," "White Hyacinth"), none describes it quite as aptly as "Fool's Onion." It has seldom been reported in Mount Rainier National Park, but Team Biota recently found it in abundance (i.e., over 100 plants) in a previously unrecorded location. It is substantially larger than the Alliums it resembles, often reaching heights of 18 inches or more. The inflorescence is an umbel up to 3 inches in diameter surmounting a sturdy stem which sometimes leans under the weight of the flowers, and individual petals are marked by a greenish central stripe. Its rarity caught me by surprise. Because it was so numerous at this site, I assumed it was common elsewhere until I checked the identification in several field guides. Another score for Team Biota!

Comarum Palustre, Purple Marshlocks

Day 271: Rare in Mount Rainier National Park, Comarum palustre is a denizen of boggy or swampy areas. Formerly grouped with the Potentillas (cinquefoils) and previously bearing the misleading appellation of "Marsh Cinquefoil," Purple Marshlocks has undergone changes in both its common and scientific names as research determined that it was a genus in its own right. While most modern field guides will have the correct taxonomy, the older and confusing common name persists. It bears a compound leaf comprised of 5-7 leaflets, toothed, and arranged somewhat palmately (like fingers on a hand). The similarity of the leaf to that of the cinquefoils ("cinque," five; "foil," leaf) was one of the factors which led to its original and inaccurate classification.

Hypericum Anagalloides, Tinker's Penny

Day 263: Local field guides may refer to Hypericum anagalloides (Tinker's Penny) as "common," but it is not often found in Mount Rainier National Park. It was only by chance that we discovered it while searching for the Fungus of Worldwide Concern (FOWC), several small patches almost entirely hidden by the dominant sedge. As its scientific name implies, it is a member of the same genus as common St. John's Wort, but unlike its weedy roadside cousin, it is native to the state. It is a tiny plant with stems no more than 8 cm. long and blossoms ca. 4 mm and so intensely yellow that they put buttercups to shame. Unfortunately, your correspondent neglected to place her reference penny beside the Tinker's Penny for comparison, thoroughly distracted by the FOWCs and the need to document them for posterity.

Finding Team Biota

Day 259 (Part A): Don't be misled by what appears to be a trail in the center foreground. That relatively brush-free strip of ground was only about eight feet long and was probably the remnant of an old elk trail. For the most part, Team Biota's assault into the Myriosclerotinia bog could best be described as a "penetration." It was rare when we could catch more than a glimpse of another team member even though we were only 15-20 feet apart. Sucky mud, tangled slide alder, fallen logs and hidden ankle-grabbers are just a few of the hazards keeping anyone but the most dedicated researchers out of the area. All but three of the 51 specimens of the rare fungus seen just six days ago had completed their ephemeral life cycle and no evidence of them remained. That said, we discovered two vascular plant species which had not previously been reported in this location. Science ain't for wimps!

Finding Myriosclerotinia Caricis-ampullaceae

Day 253: In a paper published in Vienna in January 1996, Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae is referred to as "very rare," and goes on to describe it as occurring on two species of Carex, C. lasiocarpa and C. rostrata. The latter Carex is included in many PNW field guides, but there is some confusion regarding the sedges, and whether or not our Mount Rainier beaked sedge is Carex rostrata or Carex utriculata is a subject open for debate among botanists. This information opens the question of whether or not our discovery of the fungus shows a heretofore unrecorded host, or whether it could be a local subspecies. DNA research shows that specimens taken in Europe (notably from Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Czechoslovakia) are identical to those found in the US and Canada. We must also consider that the Carex host recorded in 1985 and detailed in the paper might have been misidentified. One question generates another, which in turn gives rise to many more. Oh, to have another fifty years to find the answers!

Joe And Myriosclerotinia

Day 252: Joe dropped me off about twenty minutes ago and is en route home as I write this, and I think neither of us will sleep a wink tonight. Our primary goal for the day was to bushwhack into the site at which in 1948 Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae was last seen in Mount Rainier National Park. We had noted a small clearing in which Carex was growing, a known host for this rare species. A narrow stream of trickling water ran through the center of the mini-meadow, so we began patrolling its edges with our eyes peeled for even the smallest cup. Joe went up a secondary stream which fed into the main flow and was about fifty feet away when I suddenly shouted, "Oh, my gawd, I've got one!" I honestly had had no expectations of success, and immediately pulled out my GPS to mark the location. I got down on my knees and began taking photos from different angles, and in viewing my specimen from the side, I saw two more near it. Then the hunt began in earnest, Joe on one side of the stream and me on the other. In the course of the next hour or so, we found a grand total of fifty-one specimens. Although none were as large as the ones we had found in the first location on June 2, these appeared to be newly emergent and still growing. Many were only about 3 mm. in diameter. As we studied the area for clues into Myriosclerotinia's habitat requirements, we noted that the fungi only grew on the south bank of the stream and never more than 8 inches from moving water. All but one occurred in a strip approximately 8" x 30', and nowhere else in the meadow. Two are visible in this photo if you have keen eyes, and Joe is photographing another cluster of three hidden in the sedge. Fifty-one!!!

Myriosclerotinia Caricis-ampullaceae

Day 249: Since my botanizing partner Joe and I (Team Biota) discovered this unusual cup fungus in a snow-melt meadow in Mount Rainier National Park, a flurry of emails went out, first from Joe to a friend who is a mycologist, thence to a mycological society and further, to mycologists around the globe. The consensus is that it is Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae. This particular species is considered "very rare," but the genus is rare as well. Who would have thought that such a lowly thing could generate such interest? And who would have expected to stumble across it while hunting for rare/uncommon vascular plants?

Joe, his wife Sharon and I have made several return trips to the site over the last two weeks, and have learned that these fungi are extremely ephemeral, here today and gone tomorrow. Joe and Sharon found a few on their second trip, but none since. After a conference with the Park's Plant Ecologist earlier this week, I was authorized to take an herbarium specimen if enough examples were present. Arnie knows my feelings on collecting, and trusted me to make the critical judgment call for collection of a rare species.

I went into the meadow in full rain gear on a blustery, cold day and began searching the margins of snow-melt pools and the banks of a tiny stream, but was frustrated at having no success in finding my quarry. With additional information I had been given about the species, I examined several dozen stems and leaf sheaths of the Carex (Cotton-grass) native to the site, but found no evidence of sclerotia. It was beginning to look like my mission was going to be a bust. Then, just as I was packing up to leave the meadow, I saw something floating in the water, loose. It was a single specimen, not attached to anything, waiting to be lifted out for preservation with only minimal pangs of conscience on my part. It was in less than perfect condition, admittedly, but it would serve for DNA analysis at some future date, should the budgeting for such advanced research ever be possible.

Team Biota has another trip to the site planned, but even if this ephemeral species is done for the year, there will be other years. The last known record of it at Mount Rainier is dated 1948, and a specimen from that date is preserved in the University of Illinois herbarium. I may be dead and gone before it sprouts again, but for 2016, I was there. I saw it. A solitary specimen is drying on my desk as I write this. I have a feeling the story of Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae is not at an end.

Hemitomes Congestum, Gnome Plant

Day 245: As I have said repeatedly, last year was a banner year for the mycoheterotrophic species including the relatively uncommon Hemitomes congestum, aka Gnome Plant. Prior to last year, I had only found Hemitomes a handful of times in half a century of woodland ramblings, and those sightings were mostly of single, isolated specimens. However, in 2015, I discovered it in multiple locations for a total of over 100 individual plants. Following another mild winter, I predicted that we might again see an uptick in mycoheterotrophs, a prediction which was borne out at least in part by a record number of individuals (16!) for Corallorhiza trifida earlier in the year. I've been monitoring two known Hemitomes sites for the last month, and was elated to see them beginning to emerge in both locations just one week ago. So far, the count is only five in one site and one in the other, but I am confident more will burst through the forest duff following the next spell of warm weather.

Suksdorfia Ranunculifolia, Buttercup Suksdorfia

Day 240: Buttercup Suksdorfia takes both its common name and the second half of its taxonomic binomial from the shape of its leaves, i.e., the fact that they resemble those of buttercups (a different family). Its range within Mount Rainier National Park is broad, but nowhere does it occur abundantly. Freshly open flowers exhibit a yellow eye which changes to red with age, both often evident in the same panicle. After finding a few rain-battered examples in one location, I returned under better weather a few days later, only to discover that the flowers had already withered. Thus began the Great Suksdorfia Hunt of 2016, a process which covered a substantial number of hours and miles on foot before I found a satisfactory specimen in bloom, never mind that it was several feet above my head and required some minor scrambling up a rock wall. In my attempt to hold the camera steady, my left arm and leg were perforce positioned in a small trickle of unpleasantly cold water, and by the time I'd gotten the shot, I was soaked on one side, dry on the other. Suffice to say, botanizing isn't for wimps!

Pinguicula Vulgaris - Butterwort

Day 236: Another score for "Team Biota" and a life-list species for me, a thriving colony of Butterwort was growing on a rock wall over which a steady drip of water was falling. Ten feet above it, we spotted another solitary plant, its yellow leaves and single blue flower the only other evidence of the species at the site. If not considered rare in the catalogue of Mount Rainier flora, Pinguicula vulgaris has been classified as "review - group 1" per "The Endangered, Threatened and Sensitive Vascular Plants of Washington" (2014) and is reported to occur in only a few places in the Park. This location was not one of the ones on record for the species.

Pinguicula is an insectivore. Tiny, specialized glands on the upper surfaces of its leaves exude a sticky/slimy substance which traps insects. The hapless mosquito or gnat which becomes ensnared in the goo is then digested by enzymes contained in another type of gland. Husks of former meals are often found on the leaves of Butterwort.

Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae

Day 235: Updating this: Originally identified from the photos as Myriosclerotinia dennisii by one mycologist, this specimen was referred out by my botany partner Joe to another mycologist who in turn brought in several other experts to study the images. Based on their replies (and they did not necessarily agree with each other), I am amending the identification to Sclerotinia sulcata.

Newer update: this 'shroom has gone 'round the globe! The consensus among the mycological community is that it is in fact Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae, a rather rare species globally and only recorded in Mount Rainier National Park in 1948. The 1948 specimen is in the University of Illinois herbarium.

Another score by "Team Biota" (Joe and Crow), several dozen were found growing at the edge of a small seasonal pool in the Hudsonsian zone, some with their feet in the water. The height of the tallest was about 5", a 1" cup wobbling on a narrow stipe surrounded by adjacent grass. The others were in various stages of development, and those with larger cups had a tendency to fall over when the support of the grass was removed. The flesh was very thin and brittle, textured with depressions which brought to mind of the hammered metal cookware of the 1950s. Definitely one of the oddest "Freaky Fungi" in Crow's Catalogue, I'm grateful to Joe for tracking down the identity of this unusual 'shroom.

Erythranthe Breweri - A Penny Perspective

Day 233: I barely know where to begin. Yesterday, I went on a botanizing expedition with my friend Joe. He'd baited me with a report of an insectivore I'd never seen in the wild, but by the time the day was over, we had recorded half a dozen rare/uncommon species. The prize was won by Erythranthe breweri, formerly called Mimulus breweri and known commonly as Brewer's Monkeyflower. It has only been recorded in a few locations in Mount Rainier National Park, and the site at which we observed it was not one of them.

Upon referring our find to the Park's Plant Ecologist, we were dispatched on another mission: to collect a single specimen for inclusion in the Burke Museum's herbarium. I am of two minds with respect to taking herbarium specimens, one side of my head arguing that if it's rare, it should be left in place, even as the scientific part of my brain protests that being able to profile the DNA or otherwise study a rarity has great and growing value. Since we were able to count at least 36 individual specimens at this site, I carefully removed one, cleaned its hair-like roots of soil and pressed it temporarily between the pages of a notebook, laying it out as naturally as possible. Spreading the petals was no easy task since even in the space of a few minutes, they had begun to curl. Immediately upon returning home, I transferred it to acid-free paper and weighted it for drying. Once the process is completed, I will return it to the Park where it will be catalogued and archived.