Environmental Study Of Lechtenberg Park

[freeztar]

To whit, another fungus, which I have tentatively ID'd as Red Belt Fungus - Fomitopsis pinicola. :doh:

:naughty:

My polypore knowledge is weak, but I do believe that the picture is of a Ganoderma lucidum.

 

The purple ones are supposedly good for joints (according to Chinese medicine)

 

Lingzhi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

It could be wrong though...:hihi:

[Turtle]

My polypore knowledge is weak, but I do believe that the picture is of a Ganoderma lucidum.

 

The purple ones are supposedly good for joints (according to Chinese medicine)

 

Lingzhi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

It could be wrong though...:doh:

 

Wow! This may be quite valuable. On the basis of takes-one-to-know-one and you think it's Ganoderma, then we better ask Ganoderma. :doh: I'm on it like a cancer cure on a polypore. :naughty:

 

PS Here's the last photo I took; it's another Bracket Fungi. :hihi:

 

unknown variety

growing on live douglas fir

may 10, 2008

lechtenberg park, clark county washington

[Turtle]

Cedars narrowed the ID of this little bug to a Snout Beetle, and on reading up a bit I see they also commonly call them Weevils. Given the hundreds of species, Snout Beetle works for me. :hyper:

 

Now again to that flower it's on. Maybe a Miterwort? Mmmmmmmmm....:moon: :eswirl:

 

Edit september 19, 2010: i have since identified this as western buttercup - Ranunculus occidental. the petals are deciduous & fall quickly, making an accurate count tricky.

[freeztar]

I don't think it'sa miterwort. All the pictures I see of miterwort show a spike of flowers with no leaves on the spike. In your picture it looks like the flower is terminal on the stalk and there are lanceolate leaves below the flowers.

[Turtle]

I don't think it'sa miterwort. All the pictures I see of miterwort show a spike of flowers with no leaves on the spike. In your picture it looks like the flower is terminal on the stalk and there are lanceolate leaves below the flowers.

 

OK What kind of flower is like that? :D

 

So I'm pretty jazzed because I got up early today & went out to the park for an hour or so. Yesterday it got to 97F on my porch & no way did I want to be out in that, but I don't want to miss the Red-Osier Dogwood blooming. The buds on it still weren't open. :(

 

Then I went to check on those 'mints'. Sure enough Freeztorter, it is Stinging Nettle. :) I didn't get it on sensitive skin last time, so this time I rubbed it on my inner wrist and sure enough, stinging! :doh: I will make the appropriate changes. I brought home a piece, and with my loupe I can clerarly see the stinging hairs. Not sure if I can photograph them they are so small, but maybe a scan will work if not. :)

 

My best exciting news is I found a Pacific Yew, otherwise called Western Yew. This is a fabulous find as the Natives used the wood for bows, ate the inner bark, and it is the tree that is the source of taxol, a powerful anti-cancer drug. :hihi: I will scan a small branch, and I have one of those 'species videos' to process.

Taxus brevifolia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Special Uses

The wood of Pacific yew has been used for archery bows, canoe paddles, tool handles, gunstocks, boat decking, furniture, musical instruments, carved figurines, and miscellaneous novelty items. (In a recent western State gubernatorial election, campaign buttons were made of yew wood.) Japanese have used Pacific yew for ceremonial "Toko" poles, which they place next to entrances of their homes (6,19,23,29,44). Pacific yew's resistance to decay makes it useful for fenceposts. Of seven northwest species tested for use as untreated fenceposts, Pacific yew was the second most durable, with an average service life of 25 years (33). In the mid-1980's Japanese purchasers paid $3,600 per thousand board feet (Scribner scale) for Pacific yew logs, mostly for wood carvings. In 1989, Japanese buyers agreed to pay $4,150 per thousand for grade 1 yew logs, and a Taiwanese buyer paid $6,100 (7).

 

Among Native Americans, Saanich Tribal women used Pacific yew to remove underarm hair; Okanagans made a red paint from ground yew wood mixed with fish oil; several tribes smoked dried yew needles, which was said to cause dizziness; Haidas believed that women who ate yew berries would not conceive. Yew was valued as an item of trade and used in making instruments for hunting, fishing, and warring; tools, such as mauls and splitting wedges; household utensils, such as bowls and spoons; and medicine for a broad range of ailments (23,29,44). ...

Taxus brevifolia Nutt

That's a wrap. ...........:eek:

[freeztar]

OK What kind of flower is like that? :D

 

Errrr....ummm...I'm not sure. :)

Maybe once the flower matures a bit it will be easier to tell.

Then I went to check on those 'mints'. Sure enough Freeztorter, it is Stinging Nettle. :doh: I didn't get it on sensitive skin last time, so this time I rubbed it on my inner wrist and sure enough, stinging! I will make the appropriate changes. I brought home a piece, and with my loupe I can clerarly see the stinging hairs. Not sure if I can photograph them they are so small, but maybe a scan will work if not. :eek:

 

Cool. :)

That's a good plant to know. :(

My best exciting news is I found a Pacific Yew, otherwise called Western Yew. This is a fabulous find as the Natives used the wood for bows, ate the inner bark, and it is the tree that is the source of taxol, a powerful anti-cancer drug. :hihi: I will scan a small branch, and I have one of those 'species videos' to process.

Taxus brevifolia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Ah yes, the Pacific Yew! It is such a great tree indeed. I only found one the whole time I lived in the PNW. It is indeed a great find. :D

[Turtle]

YouTube - Pacific Yew - Taxus brevifolia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j5bgvargJo

 

 

Stinging Nettle - Urtica dioica

may 17, 2008

lechtenberg park

clark county washington - native

 

hair detail:

[Turtle]

Red Osier Dogwood - Cornus stolonifera

may 10, 2008

lechtenberg park

clark county washington - native

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAG6UKGMRYk

[Racoon]

 

So I'm pretty jazzed because I got up early today & went out to the park for an hour or so.

My best exciting news is I found a Pacific Yew, otherwise called Western Yew. This is a fabulous find as the Natives used the wood for bows, ate the inner bark, and it is the tree that is the source of taxol, a powerful anti-cancer drug. :)

 

That's a wrap. ...........:)

 

You found a Yew!??

 

I need a trip back... :doh:

[Turtle]

You found a Yew!??

 

I need a trip back... :eek:

 

:hihi: We walked by and under it several times. :doh: What is getting cool now is that I know enough of the main plants that I can pick out those still not ID'd.

To whit, growing upright, but low on the ground, I found this plant on the Yew trip too; Sitka Valerian - Valeriana sitchensis

...............

 

 

Valeriana sitchensis - Plants For A Future database report

burke herbarium Pacific waterleaf

 

may 17, 2008

lechtenberg park

clark county washington - native

 

leaf detail:

 

blooms:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF9dZoB94PY

 

edit september 19, 2010: i incorrectly identified this a sitka valerian; it is actually pacific waterleaf. :doh:

[Ganoderma]

Now that you mention it, no, I am not sure it's not a nettle. :esad: I didn't think to smell it, but I'm a smoker and subtle smells often evade my olfactory lobe. :doh: :doh: I did handle the plants however and received no irritation from that. I know where they live & I'll visit them again.

 

Much as I wood would have liked to go today, it is ~90F and I'm not sufficiently revived. Last night's low temperature was higher than the day before's high temperature. Our first heat-wave of the new year. :)

 

But, staying in is allowing me to catch up on reviewing and posting some of the many photos & videos I made in the last couple trips. To whit, another fungus, which I have tentatively ID'd as Red Belt Fungus - Fomitopsis pinicola. ;)

:(

 

i hate to be a stick in the mud, but they are not Ganoderma. G. lucidum rarely grows on coniferous trees, it may but almost always grows on deciduous type trees (birch/alder, palms etc). There are other species which grow on coniferous, and they grow in the USA, but your pics are not of that genus, sorry! Most (i say most not all for safety reasons) of bracket type fungi (true bracket fungi) are non toxic, so the risk is very low....but there are probably some nasty things out there i am sure.

 

G. lucidum often has a good stalk.....if the light and air flow is poor they will grow as antlers, but in the wild they often get good air circulation so may even have no stalk. white lip, lacquered surface and the spores collect on the TOP for some funky reason.

[Turtle]

i hate to be a stick in the mud, but they are not Ganoderma. G. lucidum rarely grows on coniferous trees, it may but almost always grows on deciduous type trees (birch/alder, palms etc). There are other species which grow on coniferous, and they grow in the USA, but your pics are not of that genus, sorry! Most (i say most not all for safety reasons) of bracket type fungi (true bracket fungi) are non toxic, so the risk is very low....but there are probably some nasty things out there i am sure.

 

G. lucidum often has a good stalk.....if the light and air flow is poor they will grow as antlers, but in the wild they often get good air circulation so may even have no stalk. white lip, lacquered surface and the spores collect on the TOP for some funky reason.

 

Roger on the not Ganoderma. For clarification, I don't recall that the dark fungus on a stalk was growing on Fir; it was a fallen log and may have been Oregon Ash or Garry Oak. So if not Ganoderma, any idea what it is?

 

The other Fungus I imaged in post #274 was growing on I believe a live Doug Fir, and I found something similarly described in one of my books called Indian Paint Fungus - Echinodontium tinctorium.

:)

 

:o :hihi:

[modest]

Is this it?:

 

 

 

Or, is it the more wooded area half a block to the east? I drive through lawrence every now and then - I may have to make this my stop.

 

Also, nice having google maps with "street-view" :shrug:

 

-modest

[Turtle]

Is this it?:

 

 

 

Or, is it the more wooded area half a block to the east? I drive through lawrence every now and then - I may have to make this my stop.

 

Also, nice having google maps with "street-view" :shrug:

 

-modest

 

I don't recognize that location or view, and I don't see the coordinates on the screen-shot to confirm location. :hihi: Here's the coordinates of Lechtenberg in Clark County Washington:

45º 38' 50" N

122º 27' 37.35" W

[modest]

45º 38' 50" N

122º 27' 37.35" W

 

I don't know what went wrong, yikes!

 

Here we go, beautiful as well:

 

 

-modest

[Turtle]

I don't know what went wrong, yikes!

 

Here we go, beautiful as well:

 

 

-modest

 

Thaaaat's the one! :) Just about the zoom level that caught my eye too. That bluish oblong shape to the NE is a man-made water skiing lake. If you zoom in you can see boats, trailers, etcetera. There is another just NW that is either drained or maybe never was filled for lack of customers. Last Summer we saw cattle grazing between the park and the lakes, and evidence they are going right into the creek. :naughty:

 

I don't know what regulation, if any, is on these cattle in the creek, but I remember a few years back hearing that many of the algae/water weed problems in the the lake that Lacamas Creek drains into (Lacamas Lake of course.;) ), have their basis in the high nitrogen levels getting into the creek from surrounding cattle pastures upstream of the lake. I did see evidence of there having once been an electric fence near the park North boundary, but only a few wire stakes remain. I suspect it's an out-of-sight-out-of-mind thing, or possibly and/or don't-ask-don't-tell.

 

Then there is runoff into the creek from that golf course to the West too I suppose! :eek: Fertilizer, fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, matricides. The Death of a thousand cuts for Mother nature. :)

 

Well, that's a wrap. Thanks for havin' a look Modest. I'm dancin' as fast as a turtle can.

[freeztar]

Cows in streams = not good

 

I would recommend notifying the owners of the park about the cattle intrusion and see if they are willing to install fences along the property border. Unfortunately it's nearly impossible to control cattle droppings in streams on private land, but public land is quite different (except BLM's I suppose).