Stropharia ambigua

A common but impressive mushroom I will not forget is Stropharia ambigua. It's a cold weather mushroom (September-November) and I have seen it growing all over Seattle in woodchips and leaves.

The cap is cream-yellow-orange and the stalk is white. The cap is slimy/wet when young and broad/flat when mature. It has a white veil that often leaves remnants hanging from the cap margin.

It can grow very tall and is usually in large groups.

Schizophyllum commune

I am going to post about new mushrooms I learn, ones I have really learned and know I won't forget.
Here is one: Schizophyllum commune

I saw it growing on a small log in a garden bed near the greenhouse here at UW.

At first, I thought it was a lichen (see photo), but when I looked below, i found what looked like gills. I took it to Joe Ammirati, UW mycologist, and he said "if it has split gills, it's Schizophyllum."


(photo from wikipedia)
I looked, and the 'gills' did indeed look split down the center. He said they are actually fertile, spore producing 'troughs' lined up next to each other like canoes, giving the appearance of gills.


(photo from wikipedia)
I looked up Schizophyllum on wikipedia and it is "THE word's most widely distributed mushroom." Very cool.
That is good because wherever you live, you might find this cute fuzzy one.

(hint: It grows on cut logs and sticks from hardwood-not conifer-trees)

Obama

Obama is our new president!

Tree of Life

Take a look at this preliminary tree of life!
(here is a link to a larger version)
It's based on whole genome sequencing, which is time and cost intensive.

What diversity!
Read all the names and you will find the tiny pink section in the upper left to span Giardia, Plasmodium, Oryza (rice), Saccharomyces (yeast), Gallus (wild chicken), Mus (mouse), Homo and Pan (chimpanzee).
If that small section contains organisms apparently so diverse to us...imagine the diversity of form, life history, energy use, protein synthesis, biochemical pathway, etc. represented by the other 85% of life.
What an amazing world...
Humans know very little. There is so much to learn, I love it.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas family and friends!

snowed in!

Seattle has a new winter plan: snow.
Snow all the time :)


And no one has any intentions of salting the roads because it will flow into the freshwater lakes.
Bless them.
It is making life really fun!!
I haven't gone to work in a week.

free bread

Yes, free bread. Back in September, I was happy to find a Seattle replacement for my free bread supplier, Carlucci's, of Salt Lake City. God bless that establishment.

My new spot - The Essential Baking Company - is great.
They have everything: pear-fig bread, sweet potato pecan, walnut, olive, orange, cinnamon raisin, rye, focaccia, sourdough, millegrain, etc, etc.


They have it all the time! Three dumpsters to pick from, always full of bread.
They have everything all of the time right next to the bike trail! ...it's too great.
:)

Jesus loves all creatures

Jesus loves all creatures :)

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goods!

I've got goods!
Holiday goods, Christmas goods, friendship goods, you name it!

I have the ever-comfortable reversible headbands:

I have the ever-hilarious homemade potholders:


I have the ever-reusable canvas tote:


and I have stamped notecards for the ever-corresponding:

Leave a message about what you need or go to treepeople.etsy.com for your gifting needs.
Happy Holidays friends!
It is almost Christmastime and the new 2009 year!

Amanita

I finally found a real, red Amanita muscaria. There were two 6-inch diameter mushrooms growing right next to the road. Candice and I were so excited we missed the bus we were waiting for!
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