The Daily Bucket: Into the spring woods for vitamin N and F.

Pacific Northwest

Whatcom County

Washington State

The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.

We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.

For me and many others, being in nature contributes greatly to my general sense of wellbeing. Much has been written about the physical and mental heath benefits of being immersed in nature to the point of referring to nature as Vitamin N and to the forests as Vitamin F. The Japanese who have researched this relationship extensively have a term for this activity — Shinrin Yoku translated as forest bathing or forest immersion. It seems to work for me. This was brought home to me a few years ago by my then 11 year old granddaughter Ava who is my frequent outdoors companion. She and I were being interviewed by the Whatcom Land Trust relative to our being Land Stewards of one of their forested properties.

The Interviewer to Ava: “What is your grandpa like when you are out in the woods together?”
Ava: “Well, he just seems so much happier. I guess he just finds his ‘inner Grandpa’ out there. “

She really had me pegged.

This past couple of weeks I was able to return to the woods for my overdue dosage of vitamins N and F. I seem to need healthy doses of these two nutrients these days or I get fidgety and antsy. Here is some of the nature that I observed on three of these little jaunts to different forest settings.

Fairhaven Community Forest:

My first woodsy foray was to a local getaway, just five minutes from my house. This is the Fairhaven Community Forest, an 82 acre parcel of land within the city limits of mostly second growth forest. It is now preserved as a city park but without the usual park amenities although it is adjacent to a more traditional park. It is mostly preserved and maintained with native flora and has a great trail system. I’ve written of this spot in the past. Although it is very popular, its numerous rustic trails keep hikers distributed so it seldom seems busy. I rarely see more than a couple of people and dogs over an hour’s time.

This forest plot having been logged probably 100 years ago has typical trees and other flora of the Pacific Northwest including Douglas-fir, Red Cedar, Alder, Black Cottonwood, Birch among others.

Black Cottonwood covered with a thick coating of moss to which numerous licorice ferns have secured themselves.

Many of you might know that I have an affection for mosses including this fine specimen of Common Feather-moss (Kindbergia praelonga)

A nice little spray of Dog pelt lichen (Peltigera canina) ensconced in a bed of moss.

The bleeding hearts are just coming out and soon there will be acres of them in the forest.

Next is another sample of the mica caps as shown in the lead photo. Here we have a couple of very young caps with two that are a bit older. As they age they turn to an inky mess, hence referred to as “ink caps”. When young, they are tasty, but as they turn to ink, yuck! Other common inky caps you might see are Shaggy Manes.

More Mica caps showing young fresh samples and what happens in a few days.

When I first ran into this next fungus a few years back, it was distributed along the trail in little clumps and looked like mats of dog hair. Once I figured out that it was not dog hair, there was just too much of it, I dug out iNaturalist which informed me that it was a parasitic fungus that attacks other fungi. Some have questioned that it might be something else (iNaturalist is not always correct) but I do not believe it is dog hair. Surely no one is combing their dog in the same place every year at the same time.

Syzygites Megalocarpus, ? aka Troll-doll fungus?

Whatcom Land Trust property

The next forest plot is the 16.7 acre property that I and my family steward for the Whatcom Land Trust. I check this out at least monthly to keep an eye on changes and to eradicate invasive species. I’ve written about this tract previously.

Spring brings out the loveliest of flowers, the Pacific Trillium (Trillium ovatum). They are abundant along the trails in the forests of the PNW this time of year.

Wait a week and you have yet another trillium as they change from white to purple as they age.

If the Trillium is the beauty, then this slime mold is the beast:

False Puffball (Reticularia lycoperodon). This is one of the Mycetozoa slime molds or “True Slime Molds.” This is also called “Cauliflower slime mold.”

Big-Shaggy Moss (Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus) This one was new to me until recently. It would work well as a Christmas tree for tiny forest critters.

Eyelash cups (Scutellina sculetellata) The outer rim of these little cuties has black hairs so as to look like eyelashes. Zoom to see

County Park at Silver Lake

The third walk was for a Mushroom Foray that I participated in with our local Northwest Mushroomers Association at a 410 acre County Park at Silver Lake, about 35 miles east of Bellingham Bay into the Cascade Mountains. Fortunately this is a large park as 70 people showed up for the foray.

A covered picnic facility at Silver Lake Park where we gathered to team up and then return to identify our new found treasures on a chilly April morning.

Here is one little gem that I found attached to a rotting log. It is a small little peach colored ball. Its story is that it develops its spores inside the ball and when mature, a small flap or door forms through its covering. Then a wood-boring beetle finds its way into the body through the door to feed on the tissue and spores. Some of the spores attach to the beetle and as it goes to other logs, the spores rub off and begin their new cycle on a new log.