Today I was out again doing a rare plant survey. Almost immediately out of the truck we were assaulted by swarms of mosquitoes. They didn't care how much bug spray or how strong it was. I did bring my fashionable head net, which helped a bit. I'm sad to say my arms and neck took the brunt of the assault. Thankfully later in the heat of the afternoon, they tapered off for a bit and I could take off my head net. But I will remember this site not for the mosquitoes, but rather for the extremely large and juicy blueberries. There were also black huckleberries (also yum), blackberries, dewberries (which I think I ate but I'm not sure what happens during a berry feeding frenzy), and black blueberries. Yup. There's something called a black highbush blueberry. I didn't totally key out the shrub, but I know it exists so I'm pretty sure I ate some of them. Here's a pic of some of those large and juicy blueberries...not the black blueberries though. 
Above is a mystery non-plant. It was growing all over the boulders and I'm not sure if it's a lichen or fungus. It sure was cool looking though.
We stumbled upon this lady box turtle chowing down on some fungus. It was a bit awkward and I felt like we were intruding on her private gorging so we quickly moved on.
Last there were a ton of cool fungus out. These are one of the few pics that came out mostly focused. 
4 comments:
Wow, what a cool work day! You should make some berry jam. Also, what Anita said.
I am very behind in your blog, my life got in the way! Sounds like things are going well... And I love the post's title - totally had me singing like the Wizard of Oz.
Cool turtle.
The last image is of indian pipe, which is actually a flowering plant (one of the few, if not the only, species that has no chlorophyll) not a fungus. It's dying back now, but a week or two ago, the plants would have been white.
I found out that last pick was a dying Indian pipe from co-workers. But I wasn't entirely sure what it was when I was out there considering there's so many funky fungi out. But thanks for the outside confirmation Mark.
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