Beautiful and Dangerous Nature

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been blogging, because it finally thawed out around here and I have to be outside! Can you believe we had snow in late April and today we had over 80° weather? Because I haven't been checking in here much, I've ended up with a number of things to share. So this is going to be one of those Justine's favorites kind of blog posts.

Something I wanted to be sure and share with you guys was a display from last month's Art in Bloom at the Milwaukee Art Museum. You might remember Art in Bloom from past years. If not, it's a wonderful show of flower arrangements that are interpretations of the art.

This arrangement was in the Haitian gallery space. Check out that skull!

This display had a lot of exotic looking plants in it. I actually took a photo of the plant list, because some of these were new to me. I was especially interested in the spidery or octopus looking one in front. This one:

After googling pics of every plant on this list, I didn't find it. So if any of you know what that plant is, please let me know! Here's the flower list:

This is the painting that goes with the floral display, Baron Le Croix (Bawon Lakwa) by André Pierre. If you read the "Designer Statement" at the bottom of the flower list, you'll understand a little bit about the painting and the symbolism. Although, I'm pretty sure you guys had a general idea of what's going on here.

It's worth reading this brief paragraph about Baron La Croix:

Baron La Croix Wiki Page

"The ultimate suave and sophisticated spirit of death" How about that?

Speaking of new and spooky flowers, I saw these little cuties in the woods a few days ago. I was told that these are Bloodroot, and from a google search it would appear that's correct. They don't look like they'd be called Bloodroot, do they? But from what I just read, the juice from this plant is both red and poisonous. And the flowers look so innocent!

If you'd like to read more: Bloodroot Wiki Page

If you read down to the "Toxicity" section on that page, you'll learn why you shouldn't mess with this plant! What I read here is actually pretty scary. To put it simply, do not apply this to your skin because it will destroy your tissue. Don't ingest this or you might vomit or pass out. And you might want to check your mouthwash for "sanguinaria" (another name for Bloodroot) because it could lead to oral cancer down the road. Wow! Nature can be pretty powerful and not always in the best of ways.

Another find in the park was this "Tree Bracket Fungus". I would have called it Seashell Fungus. Don't these look like shells?

From what I've been reading, some of these are not super healthy for trees, but people have turned this bracket or shelf fungi into art. Evidently, it's super hard and makes a good painting surface. If you google "Tree Bracket Fungus Art" you'll see some pretty cool examples.

In other nature news, some of you may have seen this little zebra spider when I shared it on Twitter.

I blogged about these once before. Some fun trivia about zebra spiders is that they don't make webs. Instead, they sneak up and pounce on their little insect victims like a cat! By the way, these spiders are much smaller than this one appears! They're like half the size of a normal ant. Ah, the magic of cropping.

This next picture was scary for me only because I didn't see more than one deer with my eyes before taking it. Then I looked at my camera screen in surprise! There were six deer that I could see, standing out in the open. But those behind this obvious deer totally blended in to the trees. Deer aren't exactly scary, but not realizing there are extra eyes upon you is!

Now that I'm studying this photo, I don't even know if I'm seeing more eyes in the woods! I think I may have just spotted a fifth head back there. I ended up seeing a good 10 in this herd, but who knows how many were actually there.

Onto a view of the outdoors at night. These are pics of the last two full moons we've had. They appeared very differently!

March 31 ~ The Sap Moon:

April 29 ~ The Pink Moon:

It's worth reading this page: Full Moon Names if you'd like to learn why each full moon has the name it does. I hope you guys enjoyed seeing my past month or so in little pieces. I'm finding it fun to write this way, with a little of this and a little of that. Let me know if you guys are seeing any new and interesting plants or insects. Everything is popping out now!

A surprise forest find

I have something new to share with you guys! At least it's new to me. Do you recognize what this is?

My mom and I were taking a walk in a local park which is surrounded by forest area.

We noticed quite a few trees were down, probably because of the extreme winds we've been having lately. There was one in the center of the trees that was charred looking. Mom suggested that maybe lightning took it down and I wanted to see if I could find any proof of that.

I didn't find any signs of lightning striking the tree, which I assume would be a burnt area on the ground or some sort of crack in the bark. The problem with the tree appeared to be some diseased funky stuff that made it darker.

The forest floor was wet and muddy. I carefully tried to walk on the dry leaves and watch my step. While I was carefully looking at the ground, I spotted something red under one of the leaves.

Not knowing what it was, I took a stick and flicked the leaves off it. After clearing away the leaves, I still wasn't sure what I was looking at.

It appeared to be growing out of the dead trees that were lying on the ground. I thought it might be some sort of fungus. I started poking around other groups of leaves on other fallen trees and found more of these.

Some of them looked like a grapefruit peel.

This one looked like a little tea cup, which fits with one of the names these sometimes go by: scarlet elf cup.

Neither of us had even seen this fungus before, maybe because it likes to hide under the leaves. I did a little research online for images of "red fungus" and not all of those results were pleasant! But after a little scanning, I found what I was looking for.

Its fancy scientific name is Sarcoscypha coccinea. It also goes by some cuter names like scarlet elf cup and scarlet elf cap. Turns out, we saw it where we could expect to - on the forest floor, growing on damp, decaying wood. It was also usual for it to be hiding under old leaves.

Something cool I learned about the scarlet elf cup is that it was used by some Native American tribes, like the Oneida to stop bleeding. They'd first grind the fungus into a powder before applying it to the wound. Isn't it interesting that something so bright red would be used to stop blood? Don't you wonder how early people knew how to do these things? I also learned that in Scarborough, England these little elf caps make decorative additions to centerpieces. I tried to find a photo of one of those, but didn't manage to.

One more piece of trivia about the scarlet elf cap, is that when it lets loose its spores, it makes an actual "poof" sound. Wouldn't that be something to witness?

Do your recognize what this is? It's a magnolia bud. They're very fuzzy and remind me of a rabbit's foot.

I was excited to see a few signs of spring, like this iris.

And this daffodil. It really did feel like spring had arrived that day with the 70° weather.

Does anyone know what this is? I don't...

I liked the way the pine trees were framing the rest of the woods, kind of like a curtain. There are always plenty of pine cones to be found under here.

I know this one is a bit blurry, but it's the only pic I managed to get of this giant bird. I think it was a hawk. 

There were a few more birds to see, like this pair of geese.

Also some adorable ducks.

The sun was really catching this one's colors. Do you see the female next to him? I didn't until I really focused in with my camera. She blended right in with her surroundings.

Hope you enjoyed these glimpses of early spring here, and keep your eyes open if you take a walk in the woods. You might just see some little scarlet elf caps hiding under the leaves!

Mysterious Forest Mushrooms

Recently, I was lucky enough to walk through a forest near the Kohler Andrae Park. This park is located along the Lake Michigan shoreline near Sheboygan, WI. The park is filled with natural dunes and a lovely beach. Each September my mom and I take our annual trip to Sheboygan to visit this park and have a picnic. After that, we always stop in the John Michael Kohler Arts Center to see what's new. It's a fun tradition I always look forward to.

This summer has been very hot for Wisconsin, and the day we went to the park was no exception. We ended up having our picnic on some uncomfortably hot sand. It was nice to be able to escape into the woods, because it was actually comfortable in there! As you guys know, I love taking photos, and I took a lot of photos in the woods. My favorite photos were of the wild mushrooms growing on and beneath the trees.

I had a somewhat challenging time taking these photos. This first one for instance, involved standing on a rickety old log and keeping my balance while trying to get near the ground.



It was worth it, because I ended up with a shot I really liked. The mushroom looks like a fortune cookie to me!



This mushroom and the one above it were both growing out of dried up logs that were lying on the ground.



I didn't know what the above photo would look like while I was taking it. This was another precarious shot where I was trying to get near the ground without touching any suspicious plants. I put my camera under the mushroom and just snapped away.



I want to stick some googly eyes on this one, because it looks like it's grinning with a mouthful of sharp teeth.



I have no idea what this fungus is.



Here's another one. They're just growing directly from the tree bark.



I was so happy with how the light was hitting this little mushroom. It looked like a fairy's umbrella to me.



This is the shell of a Beech Nut. It looks like it should be saying "Feed me Seymour!" These were scattered around the ground, as were the Beech Nuts themselves. I guess the little forest animals like to eat those.



I'm not sure if it's just me, but this old rotting piece of wood looked like a skull. That's what I saw right away when I spotted it. You have to imagine a skull that's lying on its side.



On exiting the forest, we came to a tree that was freshly cut and leaking sap. I could smell it and it smelled lightly piney. I know those look like drips of clear water, but they're actually drips of sap!



It probably looks like the drips are in the process of dripping, but they were just suspended there. There wasn't any sap movement that I could see.

If there are any mushroom experts out there who know what kind of mushrooms I photographed, please let me know! This was the first time I'd seen a few of these.

I ran into an interesting page full of old mushroom stories and superstitions: Mushroom Magic and Folklore
There's a little there about "Fairy Rings" - those circles of mushrooms you find growing in nature. I saw one of those once and it was a pretty cool experience.

There are more mushroom videos that you can imagine on YouTube, but this is such a classic! The forest magic and dancing mushrooms of Fantasia: