You Can See A lot Just By Looking

The last weekend in July is the annual Cheshire party, which has not been help in Cheshire for quite some time. Kinda like our annual Finger Lakes Trip. But unlike the Finger Lakes Trip, which is somewhere different each year, "Cheshire North", as it has come to be called, is held in Tupper Lake, NY, at my friends Liz and Larry's place.

And for various reasons I have missed data last several, after being there for the first thirty some. But this year we went. 

And while there Patty lost her glasses while wandering about the woods. Looking at plants and fungi, and things. So the assembled masses became a search party. A successful one, as the glasses were found.

As were a few other things ...

I think this is Spindle Shaped Coral, Clavulinpopsis fusiformis, but fungi identification is a non-trivial endeavor.

And I think this is Comb Tooth, Hericium coralloides. These are just two of the many fungi species about the site. Our friend Tree (not his given name) forages for mushrooms and he was reluctant to ID any of what we saw.

We saw plenty of this. Often mistaken for a fungus, Indian Pipe is a flowering plant, albeit somewhat akin to fungi as it has no chlorophyl and, like some fungi, gets its nutrients from other plants. Although unlike fungi, Indian Pipe is parasitic on live healthy plants.

This is a healthy plant for sure, as it was growing all about the site.

I ID'd this as Running Ground Pine (Lycopodium clavatum), but I'm no expert (I'm pretty confident it's a Lycopodium). It's not a pine but rather a clubmoss, a type of plant, like ferns, which reproduces by spores and not seeds. Like fungi.

Finishing with a member of the third kingdom of macro-life (Fungi, Plants, Animals) we have a Northern Spring Peeper. Seen here on Lichen, which spans two (maybe three) kingdoms, Fungi and either Plants (algae) or Bacteria (biology is complicated).

🏕  🍄  🌿  🐸  🏕

It was a fun weekend and good to see old (college) friends. I truly missed going. I'm already looking forward to next year. And I think I'll bring more than just my iPhone camera.

⚾️  ⚾️  ⚾️  ⚾️  ⚾️

The title is a play on something Yogi Berra famously might have said. Of course, he may have also said, "I really didn't say everything I said."