Photo catch-up: Callahan State Park
Last week we (cottonmanifesto, the dogs, and I) went to Callahan State Park, in Framingham. Framingham's main claim to importance in the universe is convenient highway access (exits on the Mass Pike and Rt. 9) and the shopping malls that highway access demands. But it also contains Callahan State Park, 800 acres of healthy forest. We saw many forest wildflowers, and no garlic mustard! Here are my pictures:
An insect nymph called a spittlebug takes refuge in nest of protective froth.
Only a week after knowing of its existance, due to my brother remembering something I didn't, I discover Indian cucumber.
It's endangered in two US states, and only grows in healthy forest ecosystems. The root is edible (and apparently cucumber-like). I like how it grows in tiers. I got to it after the flower was gone, but before the fruit was very visible.
Two specimens of New England's most prominent orchid, the pink lady-slipper, converse in the wood.
A tiny American toadlet has some unusual blotchyness.
Immediately after I proclaimed it was too dry for mushrooms, we encountered several large oyster mushrooms (Pleurotis sp.)
People who collect wild mushrooms to eat like this one, as do the fungus gnats, apparently.
A tiny colorful spider (its abdomen was metallic, but this didn't come through in my picture).
Two prickly climbers in embrace: multiflora rose and greenbriar.
For more pictures of our day, see these.
(yes, Alexis, I know one of the pictures is huge; no time to resize it)
An insect nymph called a spittlebug takes refuge in nest of protective froth.
Only a week after knowing of its existance, due to my brother remembering something I didn't, I discover Indian cucumber.
It's endangered in two US states, and only grows in healthy forest ecosystems. The root is edible (and apparently cucumber-like). I like how it grows in tiers. I got to it after the flower was gone, but before the fruit was very visible.
Two specimens of New England's most prominent orchid, the pink lady-slipper, converse in the wood.
A tiny American toadlet has some unusual blotchyness.
Immediately after I proclaimed it was too dry for mushrooms, we encountered several large oyster mushrooms (Pleurotis sp.)
People who collect wild mushrooms to eat like this one, as do the fungus gnats, apparently.
A tiny colorful spider (its abdomen was metallic, but this didn't come through in my picture).
Two prickly climbers in embrace: multiflora rose and greenbriar.
For more pictures of our day, see these.
(yes, Alexis, I know one of the pictures is huge; no time to resize it)