There are Fungus Among Us!

This is a blusher mushroom found June 24, 2010 in some woods north of Harvard. I'd never seen one of these in person -- only in photos.


It's a type of Amanita, which are usually poisonous, but this a non-deadly variety! While many mushrooms are quite safe (and good) to eat, there are quite a few that are either deadly poisonous resulting in near instant death, mildly toxic (causing gastric distress), and/or containing slow-acting toxins that may take several days to affect your vital organs and kill you.


So, it's never a good idea to eat a found mushroom unless you are absolutely sure you know what it is. But, just touching a poisonous mushroom won't kill anyone, so collecting them for identification is quite safe.

I was able to identify the blusher by looking at a combination of characteristics: cap color, presence of a "veil," stem size, shape & color, gill color, spore color and the location where the mushroom was found (in this case, on the ground in some oak woods). In this case, white spores and flesh bruising red were two of the keys. Another key was that the blusher is commonly found in oak woods.


If you look closely at the photo with the cut stem pieces turning red, you can see white spore prints on the piece of paper. Spore color is one of the key pieces of information needed to identify a mushroom, so I always try to get a spore print by separating the cap from the stem and placing it on a piece of white paper under a glass overnight. This increases the humidity around the mushroom which helps to release the spores.


Something else I learned about Amanitas today: there is a mold that attacks them and turns them into gnarly, solid things, as seen in the picture to the left. I cut the mushroom thing in half lengthwise, and was surprised to find that the stem and cap flesh seemed to be fused, and while there was a cap-like piece at the top of the mushroom, but there were no gills, and the exterior was covered in a hard crust.


I would never have guessed that there was a mold that attacked fungi! That's one of the things that keeps me interested in identifying mushrooms - there is always a new variety that I have never seen before, either because I'm in a different type of habitat, or its a different time of year.

Killing Gypsy Moths

Well, it is gypsy moth season! The caterpillars have emerged and are now quite large. Soon they will pupate, and in August emerge as moths.

There are lots of references on the Internet that explain the lifecycle, spread and management of these invaders.

I can sum up the primary management objective in one word: kill.

Kill by squishing them or dropping the caterpillars into a bucket of soap water. Power spray them out of the trees - even the big caterpillars seem pretty fragile. Wrap your trees with fabric (something inexpensive like burlap works just fine).

The fabric works like this: the caterpillars feed at night, and then climb down the tree during the day to get out of the sun - and presumably hide from predators like birds. At night, when they climb back up the tree to feed, some will get caught in the fabric. Others will use the fabric as a resting place where they are hidden from predators. When checking the fabric in the morning, it will be easy to kill the caterpillars.

The next phase when it is going to be relatively easy to kill them is when they turn into moths. And they actually make it easy for us! The female gypsy moths are nearly white, and they don't fly. So, they are easy to spot, and kill. The males are brown and do fly, so are not easy to catch or see, and harder to identify as a gypsy moth versus some other native moth.

The gypsy moths are not native to North America, but they have been in our country since the late 1800s!

I went to college in the early 1980's in Massachusetts, and the gypsy moths had taken over the woods! I recall being in campus in June for orientation, and they were everywhere. In fact, they were so dense that you could hear them eating, and their droppings (called frass) sounded like a light rain! Despite the heavy infestation, the trees have survived. And so they will here, especially with a little help from us!

What is wind?

It's a windy day today! The leaves in the trees are in constant motion, creating that wonderful rustling sound.

What is wind? We can't see it. It doesn't have a smell of its own or a color or substance. But, man is it powerful when it wants to be!

Technically, wind is caused by differences in air pressure - the greater the difference in pressure from one area to another, the stronger the wind. So, you might have heard the weather reporter talk about a "front" coming through -- that is typically a high or low pressure system, and a front is inevitably accompanied by wind as the pressure changes from low to high or high to low.

I used to joke that wind came to Illinois from Kansas (because the area between here and there is so flat...) That isn't technically accurate, but it is true that weather systems generally move from west to east, so by watching the weather in Kansas we might get a hint at what to expect here in a couple of days.

There is something called the Beaufort Scale that sorts wind into categories based on the speed. For instance, wind that is 1-2 miles per hour is called "light air." One might see smoke move in the direction of the wind, but otherwise there isn't much to make one aware of light air!

A little further up the scale, a "gentle breeze" is defined as 8-12 mph wind, which results in leaves and twigs being in constant motion. I'm guessing that today is probably a "gentle breeze" kind of day, although it might have gusts that would be considered a "strong breeze" (25-31 mph) which is strong enough to move large branches. Certainly we are getting gusts that would be considered a "fresh breeze" of 19-24 mph where small trees sway!

The top of the scale is 75+ mph, or hurricane force winds which cause severe and extensive damage. I suppose around here we might call those "tornado" force winds. Although, a tornado might only fall into the category of a "whole gale" or "strong gale" with winds of 55-63 mph and 47-54 mph respectively. That's still a lot of force for something invisible!

Unctuous Matters

So, you're asking yourself: "what does the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico have to do with The Land Conservancy?"

Well, nothing -- and everything.

People in McHenry County drive cars which run on gasoline which is collected from places like the Gulf of Mexico, by companies like BP...

People in McHenry County buy things at the store - things that are often shipped hundreds, if not thousands of miles to arrive here. And during the shipping of those items, fuel is used by the trains, ships, trucks, etc that are used for transport. The more miles something is shipped, the more fuel must be used.

So, the oil spill in the Gulf is about us too.

While our wildlife, wetlands, natural lands and waters may not be clogged with oil, that is just the luck of geography keeping us clean. It is a fact that the choices we make every day at the store, in the car, even around the home contribute to this national addiction to oil. Every plastic container, toy or nick-nack is made with oil. And that apple from New Zealand is brought to your table because of the oil used to ship it to McHenry County.

But, what can we do? It is pretty overwhelming, isn't it?

1. Reduce the number of miles you drive. Car pool if you can. Combine errands into fewer trips.
2. Buy & Eat locally grown food. I've read that over 10% of all US oil consumption is tied just to transportation of food. So, the fewer miles food travels to get from the farm to your table, the less fuel consumed. period.
3. Open the windows and turn off the Air Conditioning.
4. Replace the gas-powered mower with an electric (or rotary) mower.
5. If buying a new car, choose one that gets better gas mileage than the old car. If you can, opt for a gas-electric hybrid (or, soon, an all electric model!).
6. Convince a friend to make some changes too.

It may seem overwhelming, but in the long run, we can make a difference through the choices we make about how much energy we use each day. And while that won't clean up the Gulf of Mexico, it sure might help prevent a future disaster.