14 November 2020
This week in Pittsburgh began with several days of summer and ended with autumn frost. The scenery was beautiful and well worth the time outdoors.
Above, lichen clings to a dead hemlock at Moraine State Park along the Muddy Creek Trail. Below, as of Thursday 12 November 2020 the trees were not bare in Schenley Park.
But this one is.
Ginkgos rapidly lost their leaves in the rain on 11 November.
Many fruits and seeds.
Can you tell me what plant this is? I found it at the base of red pines at Moraine State Park along the Muddy Creek Trail. Is it parasitic?
UPDATE 14 NOVEMBER 2020: Master gardener Dianne Machesney says this plant is Wrinkled club fungus (Clavulina rugosa). Judy Stark put my photo into iNaturalist and the app said so, too. Wikipedia says it is edible.
It’s colder now but there’s still time to get outdoors.
Outdoors is the safest place now that COVID-19 is spreading exponentially in the U.S. Pittsburgh Public Schools have gone fully remote again. Please wear a mask.
(photos by Kate & Rick St. John)
This could be a coral fungus, possibly Crested Coral, Clavulina cristata.
Or clavulina rugosa? Wrinkled club fungus
I’m thinking the remnants of Squawroot.
Maybe Dutchman’s Pipe
Indian pipe?