FLORA AND FAUNA

I realized I haven’t posted my nature finds recently, so I thought I’d gather up several of the more interesting specimens from across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

By far the cutest is this 13-lined ground squirrel:

(Full disclosure: not my picture, but an internet image.) About the size of a chipmunk, they live in underground burrows and lack the big cheek pouches of chipmunks. Ain’t they cute? Russ described their stripes as looking like lace. These “golden gophers” are the mascot of the University of Minnesota!

And the tastiest award goes to these Juneberries, also known as serviceberries:

These were all over the place at Brevoort lake. The plants range from shrubs to small trees. I was disappointed to find out that they were already past their season in the lower peninsula, as I’d been happily snacking away on them.

And for my mycologist buddies, a few of my cooler discoveries:

I THINK this is Boletus subvelutipes
Underside of B. subvelutipes, showing pores and dark staining
Suillus sinuspaulianus, one of the Bolete family
Check out the cool pores on this Suillus sinuspaulianus!
A nice clump of Indian Pipes or Ghost Pipes
Suillus spraguei, the Painted Bolete
Suillus spraguei pores

I was puzzled by some mushrooms that I was seeing literally EVERYWHERE along sandy lakeshores around here, until I researched them. Behold the Sand Russula:

Russula ventricosipes, the Sand Russula
Russula ventricosipes, showing gills

The more I learn about fungi, the more fascinating they are. Give them the merest bit of decayed plant matter, and they will sprout (even in sand). Fungi even form neural-like networks under the forest floor. They transmit nutrients and information between plants, acting as an underground “superhighway,” and play a crucial role in the health of forest ecosystems. The mushrooms that we see are the fruiting bodies of these underground networks. Pretty cool, if you ask me.