After the Rain!

Morel - Morchella esculenta

After we got 8 inches of rain a few weeks ago, some Morel mushrooms popped up on our property, like they do every Spring! Mushrooms aren't flowers, but they are the fruiting body (spore producing organ) of a fungus. Morels are unique mushrooms, in that they appear in the spring rather than the fall. They are a type of sac fungi that aren't that common! Sac fungi get their names from the fact that they produce their spores, called ascospores, in special pods or sac-like structures called asci. In other words, the spores are found on the walls of the honey-combed exterior.

Morel - left over Morel stems - Morel

Morchella esculenta

They are quite difficult to see as they are SO camouflaged with their surroundings. Once you find one, the rest suddenly become visible! A few days later I went back and three of them had been eaten, with only their stems remaining! Many wild critters eat mushrooms, including deer and flying squirrels!

Braun's Giant Horsetail sporangiophores - Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii

Horsetails!

To my delight I came across a patch of Braun's Giant Horsetails with many sporophytes this week! They were a lovely surprise! Horsetails have been around a long time, and are considered "living fossils"! During the Devonian period, approximately 3,500 years ago, they were as thick as forests and as big as trees! 

Braun's Giant Horsetail fertile and infertile stems 

Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii 

Horsetails are actually classified as ferns!  Like ferns, mushrooms, and mosses, horsetails reproduce via spores not seeds and do not have flowers.  They can also reproduce directly from underground rhizomes.  This particular species is dimorphic, with infertile vegetative stems that are green and photosynthetic, and fertile stems that are brown and not photosynthetic, but do produce strobili (a structure resembling the cone of a conifer) covered with sporangiophores that produce spores. 

Horsetails are also called "Scouring Rush", because pioneers used them to scrub pots and pans. Their hollow, jointed, ridged stems have silica in their cells which makes them tough!

Horsetail Life Cycle - ©Deposit Photo

The following information, from https://sciencing.com/horsetail-s-life-cycle-5673810.html, explains part of the horsetail life cycle.

"Spore-Producing Phase:  Spore cases form small to large cones (strobili) on the stems of the plant. The spores themselves are dispersed by the wind. If they land in a wet or damp place, they can germinate and grow into tiny plants called gametophytes.

Gametophytes:  The gametophyte grows two different structures, one holding female gametes in tiny cups and the other holding male gametes equipped with tails to aid in movement. This phase of the horsetail's life cycle, known as gametophyte generation, exists to ensure genetic diversity.

Fertilization:  Horsetails rely on rain for fertilization. The arrival of rain releases the male gametes, which then swim to the cups holding the female cells. The embryos grow to form the stem-like structure that characterizes the mature horsetail."

Common Horsetail strobili (5/5/21) - Equisetum arvense 

I posted my recent photos of the horsetails on inaturalist.org and a member identified them as Braun's Giant Horsetails!  I had originally thought they were Common Horsetails, which I had seen last year in a different area (see above photo)!  They are really quite different!  How wonderful to have such an incredible online resource!  It also turns out that there wasn't a record of Braun's Giant Horsetails in Sierra County, on calflora.org, so I posted my photos there as well!  How exciting!

Sierra Alligator Lizard - Elgaria coerulea palmeri

Herptile Report!

The word "herptile" encompasses both reptiles and amphibians.  Amphibians and reptiles are "ectotherms".  They cannot produce sufficient internal heat to maintain a constant body temperature, and their mobility is subject to the surrounding temperature.  Reptiles prefer temperatures between 80°-95°, whereas amphibians prefer it slightly cooler with temperatures between 75°-85°.  So, with the temperatures consistently warmer now, lizards, frogs and snakes are becoming increasingly active!   

We saw the Sierra Alligator Lizard pictured above in my neighborhood one chilly morning this week. It was so cold that it couldn't move! We moved it off the road and into some protective shrubs in the sun, so that it could warm up! 

Northwestern Fence Lizard (light phase) - Sceloperus occidentalis occidentalis

I also saw lots of lizards this week down in Canyon Creek. Mainly they were patterned in brown, rust, and beige zigzags. Others were an overall solid dusty black in color. It turns out that they might be the same kind of lizard, the Northwestern Fence Lizard! When fence lizards are cold they don't display patterns or colors, and appear mainly black! Males have distinctive blue patches on the sides of their belly and throat. These blue patches are faint or absent on females.

Tadpoles - Rana sp.

The Roadside Ditch I've been reporting on is now jam-packed with tadpoles!  More than I've ever seen before!  Most of them are pretty tiny, but there are some big ones as well!  It takes about 14 weeks for tadpoles to mature!!!  The ones pictured above are about a month old.  

Just in case you were wondering, polliwogs/pollywogs and tadpoles are different words for the same thing. Both words refer to the larval stage of both frogs and toads. 

Unknown frog - Sierra Gartersnake (Western Aquatic Gartersnake)

Rana sp. - Thamnophis couchii

This week I hiked up the creek I explored about a month ago, and the water was cascading down the creek bed and there was a frog in one of the bedrock pools! It was beautiful!  I also saw a couple of snakes in our neighborhood, a Sierra Gartersnake and a Mountain Gartersnake.

Mountain Gartersnake - Thamnophis elegans elegans

The Sierra Gartersnake is mainly aquatic, but both snakes can be found on land. The Sierra Gartersnake eats fish, frogs, tadpoles, and salamander larvae. The Mountain Gartersnake eats slugs, leeches, snails, and earthworms; fish; amphibians - tadpoles, frogs, (and probably salamanders); snakes and lizards; birds; and small mammals such as mice and voles.

Two-stabbed Lady-beetle and Aphids

Insect Update!

Insects are really active now, with the warmer weather happening.  I came across these Lady-beetles eating aphids on a willow one morning this week!  Each one was different from the others!  

Unknown Lady-beetle - Two-stabbed Lady-beetle - Rathvon's Forest Lady-beetle

unknown genus - Chilocorus stigmata - Anatis rathvoni  

There are a wide variety of Lady-beetles.  The ones I usually write about are the Convergent Lady-beetles, that are red with black spots, that converge in the fall by the thousands, to mate and overwinter. The ones pictured above I commonly see in our neighborhood, but usually just a few at a time.

Alfalfa Looper Moth - White-lined Sphinx Moth

Autographica californica - Hyles lineata

Right now there are LOTS of Alfalfa Looper Moths in our neighborhood feeding on flower nectar.  I don't remember ever seeing them before!  They are called "loopers" because the caterpillars form a loop-like shape when the walk (maybe like an Inch Worm?).

The White-lined Sphinx Moths I haven't seen for several years!  They usually show up just when the Bleeding Hearts are in bloom!  I was so glad to see one in our garden again!  These moths are quite large and so beautiful!

Hummingbird Moth/Bumblebee Sphinx Moth - Hemaris diffinis

Another large, unusual, and uncommon moth that showed up in our garden this week is a Hummingbird/Bumblebee Sphinx Moth!  I see them once in a while in our garden. Their clear wings beat so fast, it's almost impossible to see them!  The following information on this moth is from the website https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators

"Perhaps one of the most delightful insect visitors to your garden is the hummingbird moth. Several species of the genus Hemaris deserve this name and for very good reason. They fly and move just like hummingbirds. Like them, they can remain suspended in the air in front of a flower while they unfurl their long tongues and insert them in flowers to sip their nectar. They even emit an audible hum like hummingbirds.

Like the majority of moths and butterflies, the adult hummingbird moths feed on nectar from a variety of flowers, but their larvae need more specific food plants, such as several species of honeysuckle, dogbane, or some members of the rose family such as hawthorn, cherries, and plums.

The females entice the males with an aroma or pheromone that they produce from glands at the tip of the abdomen. After mating, they lay their tiny, round, green eggs on their larval food plants, usually on the underside of the leaves. The caterpillars have a horn at the rear end and are commonly green, well camouflaged among the leaves. When they are fully-grown they drop to the ground, spin a loose cocoon and pupate, partially protected by leaf litter. That leaf litter so hated by some gardeners provides a shelter to this beautiful pollinator. In the north, where the season is short there is only one generation per year; the pupa spends the whole winter well hidden and the adult does not emerge until the next spring."

Western Spring Beauty in the Rain - Claytonia lanceolata

Damp Earth Art

No rainfall happened this week.  However, the 8" of rain we got over the previous two weeks, has brought our "water year" total to approximately 52"! Yes!!! Please join me in my continuing hope for precipitation! Perhaps our collective efforts may help it happen. I'm going to keep posting rain inspired writings, art, etc. on my blog at dampearthart.blogspot.com. Any submissions would be greatly appreciated.

Wishing for peace in Ukraine and

an immediate end to this senseless war!

Where are the Bear and the Deer?

What songbirds have recently arrived?

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!

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