A Walk Around the Yard
I took my camera out for a walk around the yard. The mosses and lichens are growing in the woods and on the trees. I love the intricate detail of these plants.
They are low to the ground, which made for some interesting contortions to take photos of them. Fortunately, the lichen growing in the spruce and birch trees are mostly eye level.
This orange moss is called Pohlia Nutans. Nutans means “nodding or drooping”, as you can see the larger green tops doing. These plants are a mere 2-3″ tall, and grow throughout the wooded area around our home. I love the orange hue of the stems against the green of the other mosses and foliage.
Close up of catkins that have gone to seed:
This is Horsetail. It’s classified as a fern. It is so neat the way the plant grows, with new stems coming out of the *toothy* bud (for lack of a better description). I believe these are referred to as fertile shoots, as opposed to the later vegetative shoots we’re accustomed to seeing in the woods.
Lichens on a birch twig. There are two (maybe three) different lichens on this branch. Beard Lichen (Usnea) is the hanging moss that looks like hair. Parmelia is the flat white lichen at the top of the beard lichen. At the very top of the photo, there is a lichen that looks a lot like reindeer moss (looks like antlers), but I don’t think reindeer moss grows in trees. If anyone has better information about the mosses in this photo, feel free to correct me!
Moss at the base of a birch tree:
Here, you can see moss on a paper birch. Notice how the bark is peeling back on the tree. The bark of a paper birch constantly peels. Native People use birch bark to make baskets and other crafts.
New green leaves above:
New Prickly Rose buds and thorns. I can’t wait until the pink flowers bloom!
New leaves on birch saplings:
Visiting snowshoe hare. Just about all brown and tan now:
Until next time…
