Scleroderma citrinum

This is a false puffball. The leathery skin is one clue. The black flesh on the inside is another.

mature pigskin puffball – Scleroderma citrinum

Poking a pigskin puffball is dangerous. The spores can bring tears to your eyes, make your nose run, cause post nasal drip and give you pink eye. They are poisonous and anyone eating one is likely to experience a good bout of gastrointestinal distress.

Do NOT do this at home

When you do foolish things be prepared to deal with unexpected consequences. I felt compelled to point out the identity of this mushroom after learning its true nature.

Actually I just needed a break. I’m selecting and organizing 5 years worth of photos in preparation of updating the northern NY wildflower section of my web site. I’m still working on ’08 pics and probably have another 7,000 photos to go before I catch up to the present time. One nice thing is I’m now able to identify many of the mushrooms that once mystified me. The pigskin puffball is one of them. These photos have all been previously posted. puffball spore cloud that’s strange The joke was lost to all but my most dedicated followers. In other words, no one got it.

AKA: British Soldiers

These were growing in what you might call a hostile environment. A sand and gravel bank created by glacial deposit doesn’t provide much to live on. About the only thing living on this landscape was moss and lichens. The moss was bone dry after a prolonged ‘drought’ and I could both hear and feel it crunch under my moccasins. How alive the moss is could be debated but there were hints of green here and there. I’m sure it will revive after it cools down and we get some decent rain.

I know of no other area like this when it comes to matchstick lichens. Usually I find them here and there, never in such great numbers and covering so large a space as I found them here. I actually has to watch my step to keep from stepping on them.

Several scattered pieces of dry wood had lichens growing on them but I found only one that rated on my cuteness scale. A bit of deer moss (really a lichen – Cladonia sp.) growing alongside the matchsticks in a knothole created a cute mini garden that looks like it came from another planet.

Lichen my miniature knothole garden

How cool is that? A handful of garden that I don’t have to weed. All I need to do is place in where it will get plenty of sun and clean air. I’m thinking of transplanting another mysterious (I have no clue of the name) lichen to make the garden even more alien looking.

WIGNIT* Lichen

Fairy Fountains They look like tiered fountains to me. Now all I have to do is figure out how to drill a hole through the ‘stems’ and find a really teeny tiny fountain pump and I’m in business. I Googled ‘fairy fountain lichen’ and nothing relevant came up. I posted the above photo on G+ hoping someone might be able to properly identify it. Regardless of the scientific name I am declaring the common name to be Fairy Fountain Lichen – or not Happy me, I’ve named something that just might catch on. Wait a couple of days for this post and image to be indexed and I’ll be an authority on the web If you see it on the internet it must be true. I’d consider harvesting some of these for arts and crafts people that create Fairy Habitats but do not want to destroy the only colony on this planet known to me. If I ever get an answer on G+ I’ll come back and edit the post to include the scientific name. Until then the unofficial classification will have to remain: *What in God’s Name Is That

The unusually dry summer must be driving the frogs to my garden pond. I’ve never seen so many frogs in the pond. I counted 43 in and around the pond and I know I missed more than a few.

The stream that feeds my damned pond has been dry for weeks, normally it may dry up for a week or two at most during the summer. Even a light rain is usually enough to keep the stream flowing since it drains 100s of acres on the hillside. The last frog spotted here as long since moved on.

I’m amazed to see the swamp surrounding the property turn dry as a bone. I have never seen it dry before. It’s no wonder the frogs are seeking refuge in my little pond. Small as it may be there’s plenty of room for more. Although one seems determined to become top frog.

Draw a circle around the wrist and fingers of the top frog and what do you have?
A peace sign or the hand of a Martian from War of the Worlds?

Another satisfied spa visitor.

A niche for two

Find the 4th frog

Even my fountain workshop pond is crowded with frogs. The high count so far is 27. I won’t make you guess how many frogs are in the photo. There are 18, if ya don’t believe me use the link to see a full sized copy and count them yourself.

click image for larger size (3407 x 2559) – link opens a new window/tab

This is my favorite photo of the day. I didn’t realize just how many frogs were in it until I opened it up on the computer. It’s hard to see all 8 of them in a reduced copy so I also made a larger version to use as my new desktop wallpaper. Hint – you can’t see much more than an eye of two of them.

The wallpaper version is here: 8 frog wallpaper
(size 1920 x 1080)

If you’re wondering, the ground cover around the edge the fountain pond is Gill Over the Ground – Glechoma hedercea. Most people consider it a weed but I like it and think it looks good here.