Fairy Rings and Other Fabulous Fungi

While blooms begin to wind down as summer turns into fall, another sight becomes increasingly more common throughout our arboretum and less manicured areas - that would be the colorful and unusual fungi making themselves visible throughout our park. Along with this photo essay of Sonnenberg fungi, we will give some interesting and usual facts about fungi. Enjoy!

Click any of the images to see a larger view.

1. The largest organism on Earth is a fungus. There is a fungus in eastern Oregon that would fill 4 square miles! Read more...

 While not as large as the monster fungus in Oregon, giant puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) are a common fall Sonnenberg sight.

 

2. Fairy rings are naturally occurring rings or arcs of mushrooms. There is a great wealth of folklore from the globe about fairy rings. Some say they are places where fairies danced. Others say they are dangerous places that are best avoided else dire consequences may befall any human unlucky enough to enter one. Read more...

Here is a picture of  a fairy ring at in the Pinetum at Sonnenberg. Even though I do not think that a wild fairy mob would whisk me away to the Land of Fairy should I foolishly cross the circle, I respectfully walked around it.

 

3. There are 10,000 species of fungi in North America. Read more...

While we certainly do not have 10,000 different species of fungi at Sonnenberg, fungi can be spotted amongst the green and wooded areas throughout the year. They vary in shape, size, and color from tiny toadstools to huge puffballs.

4. While it is hard to believe, the part of mushrooms that we see is but a small part of the fungus organism. The mushroom is only the fruiting body of the fungus - somewhat like an apple is to an apple tree. The main and growing part of the fungus - which is hidden in the ground or rotting log, is called the mycelium. Read more...

5. While they may grow somewhat plant-like, fungi are not plants. Nor are they animals. They are in their own grouping or Kingdom which includes a large number of diverse and often unusual species. Read more...

Guard Below!

Last week I made the mistake of parking under a black walnut (Juglans nigra) tree. It was a beautiful sunny morning and a "munch-munch-munch" greeted me when I got out of my car. I looked up into the green leafy branches and saw a fat squirrel munching away at a black walnut. I chuckled and went into the office.

If you are not familiar with black walnuts, this time of the year they still are on the trees and in astringent green husks - see picture to the right. Later in the season, if they have a chance, they drop and the green husks will turn a rich dark brown as they soften and rot off of the nut. The nut meats of black walnut have a strong, unique flavor that is prized by many -- including the squirrel kingdom at Sonnenberg. Even though the nuts are a wild delicacy, the shells are notoriously difficult to crack. This, however, means little to the strong-toothed squirrel.

Back to my car. When I went to leave later in the day, I saw the error of my ways. My car was littered with bits of the green walnut hulls and dried walnut hull juice with I suspect a copious amount of squirrel spit intermixed in. I immediately got this image of the squirrel sitting up in the tree in denim overalls like some backwoods cartoon character spitting his walnut "tobaccy" on my car. Yeah, I do have a vivid imagination and grew up on Looney Tunes. Lesson: squirrels and walnuts equal a mess so don't park there.

If you visit Sonnenberg this time of the year and stop for a moment to listen, you will without a doubt hear the unmistakable munch-munch-munch of some pudgy squirrel. They all have their winter feedbag on and are gorging themselves on acorns, walnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts, and more found throughout the estate. While out snapping some images yesterday for a different article for the blog, I spotted this squirrel enjoying the nuts from the black walnut's sister species, our eastern butternut (Juglans cinerea). The butternut is not as common of a sight as the black walnut but we have a number of these trees located in the Deer Park area of the park. This squirrel, clearly comfortable, in a nearby maple tree barely registered my presence. And so frequent were his obvious trips between the maple and the butternuts that a clear path in the grass between the two trees could be seen.

You know, I think that sassy squirrel even posed for me. What do you think?


Stretching out along the branch

He didn't stop munching once