Contentment by design - Living - Places photo #1048

These are some things I've been noticing on my recent walks:

First, we've had a lot of rainfalls this spring, so things are growing like crazy, including lots of different types of mushrooms. I appreciate mushrooms even more after recently reading Finding the Mother Tree⩘ by Suzanne Simard, in which she discusses the research she has done on the interplay between trees and the mycelium of fungus. I don't know much about fungus, but this one has been popping up mushrooms in the same spot for years now, slowly adding more and spreading out. This spring has been wonderful; in addition to this cluster, there now are two more clusters, one that's several yards away, so I imagine there's a robust network of mycelium hyphae under the surface, perhaps interacting with the nearby ponderosas. Each cap is fairly large, 3″ or 4″ in diameter, and unlike many of the mushrooms that pop up and disappear fairly quickly, these last a long time, at least a couple weeks.

Also on view, a robust lichen colony—my uneducated guess is that it may be Xanthoparmelia⩘ , commonly known as green rock shields or rock-shield lichens. It's amazing to think that this colony is many decades, if not centuries, old.

Sand Lily

Prairie Mouse Ear

Blue Mist Penstemon

Spiderwort

Harebells

Wild Blue Flax

Mariposa Lily

Sulphur Flower

Wild Rose