A number of years ago when I worked at Strathcona Provincial Park as a naturalist I was leading a guided walk around the Karst Creek Trail when a member of the group made a very interesting discovery. We had been poking along doing some bird watching and looking at all sorts of plants along the edge of the trail. At …
Karst Creek Trail
Tiptoeing Past Fairyslippers
Looking down at a pair of Fairyslippers (Calypso bulbosa). The challenge was to get a composition with the flower and the leaf below. This is definitely the time of year to look for Fairyslippers (Calypso bulbosa) in the dark, damp forests of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. These beautiful orchids are often missed, so slow down and keep your eyes open …
Magnificent Mushrooms!
Lactarius sp. (probably rubrilacteus). This was the only mushroom we were able to identify fairly conclusively. The latex of this mushroom was reddish in colour. Yesterday we took a family walk around the Karst Creek Trail in Strathcona Provincial Park. It’s a 1.2 km loop to a beautiful waterfall through an interesting karst, or limestone, landscape. Streams appear on the …
Orange Jelly
Keep your eyes open when you’re walking in the woods, mushroom season is upon us! Jocie and I found this fantastic jelly fungus growing on a fallen Douglas Fir while walking the Karst Creek Trail in Strathcona Provincial Park today. Commonly called Orange Jelly (Dacrymyces palmatus) and often mistaken as Witch’s Butter (Tremella lutescens), this delightful, bright orange fungus is …