History, Natural History & the Arts
A stunning moth visits my deck in late summer. At an inch long, it doesn’t have the stature of a luna or cecropia moth, but the brilliant gradient of vermilion to gold across its wings and body, offset with contrasting black bars, is eye-catching.
It’s a painted lichen moth, a member of a group of small moths whose caterpillars are known for feeding on lichens. [Read more…] about The Miniature Mysteries of Lichen Moths
Mile-long Trout Brook cuts downhill through heavily bouldered glacial moraine. Like any woodland brook, it features waterfalls, cascades, pools, and coves.
By mid-December it is usually frozen over, with audible water running under the ice and snow. Only a mile from my home, I often visit this brook from mid-November until late March to see the splash-enhanced bulbous icicles and frozen foam.
During some recent winters, however, climate change has brought unseasonably warm spells, incomplete ice covers, decreased water levels, and insignificant snowfall, all of which expose ice formations normally unseen. [Read more…] about River Ice: Seeds, Frazil, and Flocs
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has expanded the oak wilt quarantine districts in Yates and Ontario counties in the Finger Lakes after finding new trees infected with oak wilt. [Read more…] about Oak Wilt Quarantine District Expanded in Yates, Ontario Counties
In darkness, a wormlike creature squirms. A tiny nematode weaves its way between grains of rock and particles of organic matter, through inverted forests of tree roots. It follows what it thinks is a pheromone trail, pausing to inspect a droplet poised on the tip of a pale, nondescript strand of fungus.
A moment later, its body begins to seize up. The chemical signals that control its muscles have been hijacked, and within seconds it is completely paralyzed. [Read more…] about The Hidden World of Carnivorous Fungi
Maple decline affects primarily sugar maple (Acer saccharum), Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and red maple (Acer rubrum) in the Northeast. The problem is not a new one; stag-headed maples were described as early as 1917 in Massachusetts.
At that time, die-back was attributed mainly to drought and to the poor conditions for tree growth afforded by the urban environment. However, reports of the incidence and severity of maple decline have increased markedly in recent decades and now include trees in urban, sugar-bush, and forest environments. [Read more…] about Maple Decline: Reviewing the Various Factors
Laurel wilt, an invasive fungal disease that affects sassafras and spicebush, was detected on Long Island this summer, marking the first discovery of the deadly plant disease in New York State.
Originating in Asia and first identified in the United States in Georgia in 2002, the disease is now present in multiple southeastern states, with the northernmost cases prior to the New York find occurring in Kentucky and Virginia. [Read more…] about Invasive Laurel Wilt Confirmed on Long Island
The Miyawaki mini forest method (also known as pocket forests) was developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki and has been successfully applied, typically on degraded land and without humus, in thousands of places across the globe. [Read more…] about Miyawaki Mini Forests: Revolutionary Reforestation
The Nature of the Place: On the Flora and Fauna of the Adirondacks (North Country Books, 2025) is Adirondack nature writer Edward Kanze’s invitation to slow down, smell the roses, and get to know fellow creatures with more longstanding claims to this landscape than we have.
Theirs is the real internet Kanze argues, a web of life that weaves together an almost infinite number of threads into a fabric that’s a wonder to behold and something close to a miracle in a largely hostile universe. [Read more…] about Ed Kanze’s Nature of the Place Reflects on Adirondack Flora and Fauna
Long before mushrooms and mycology captivated the public imagination, self-taught scientist Mary Elizabeth Banning (1822–1903) dedicated her life to the study of fungi. However, due to her gender, her work remained unrecognized for almost 100 years.
Banning was one of America’s first mycologists, who uncovered, documented, and illustrated 23 fungal species new to science in the mid-1800s. [Read more…] about Outcasts: Mary Elizabeth Banning’s World of Mushrooms
When I hug my son after a day of fall bouldering, his hair smells of the sun-warmed rock we’ve been climbing over. It’s a distinctive odor, evocative of gray ledges and golden light returning after rain, and yet it’s not the rock I’m smelling, but tell-tale traces of life.
People have written about – and appreciated – that odor since ancient times. [Read more…] about Petrichor: A Scent of Rocks and Rain
The Northeast is famous for its fall foliage, as the lush, green leaves of summer transform into bright hues, turning hillsides and valleys into quilts of scarlet, ochre, and gold.
Among the brightest foliage is that of our region’s various maple species. But as our summers have become, on average, warmer and wetter, the celebrated bounty of fall color may fade. [Read more…] about How Wet Weather Affects Fall Foliage
Fall fungi comes in a wide range of appearances, often in striking shapes and colors. Due to the moist air of autumn in New York State, our parks and trails abound with opportunities to see them in all their uniqueness.
Many of them have fantastically creepy names or appearances, just in time for the spookiest time of year. [Read more…] about Fall Fungi: A Primer
A long time ago, not so far away, freshwater plants partnered with fungi and moved onto land from lake and river shores. Since that time, land plants have evolved many sophisticated strategies for terrestrial life. Yet to this day, growing in damp forests and on foggy mountainsides, are plants that embody ancient botanical history. [Read more…] about Hooker’s Flapwort: A Rare Plant with Ancient Botanical Ties
Back in primary school in the 1970s, we learned about nature’s “food chain.” In this linear model, which I assume was devised by surveyors who normally lay out rail lines and utility corridors, a tiny creature, let’s say a minnow, gets eaten by a bigger fish, and so on until the biggest fish of all eventually dies and its rotting carcass is maybe nibbled on by vengeful small fish. [Read more…] about Food Webs and Tapestries: Connecting the Dots
“Look!” I exclaimed, bending to examine a pair of half-inch-tall, bright orange, club-shaped mushrooms. Kneeling in the leaf litter, with my two-year-old son watching in puzzlement, I carefully scraped away at the base of the colorful clubs. Just beneath the soil was a glossy brown moth pupa: the origin of the mushrooms’ stalks.
This is the orange caterpillar club (Cordyceps militaris), an insect-eating fungus that is easy to find – if you know what to look for. [Read more…] about Caterpillar Club Fungi: More Than Meets the Eye
I recently found myself sitting in the crawl space of my house holding a bioluminescent mushroom. I’d been on a quest to find one of these light-producing mushrooms and, on my birthday, had collected a jack o’lantern (Omphalotus illudens), so named for its bright orange color and nighttime glow.
As my eyes adjusted to the dark, no present was more exciting than watching that green glow appear along the mushroom’s gills. [Read more…] about Bioluminescent Mushrooms: Why Some Mushrooms Glow in the Dark
If you are out walking on a winter morning, you might be lucky enough to see some of nature’s most beautiful and ephemeral sights: hair ice and frost flowers, both snow-white and delicate against the dull forest floor. [Read more…] about Hair Ice and Frost Flowers
Some of the most important trees in your woodlot are the ones that are no longer alive. Large, standing dead or dying trees — called snags — are an important component of healthy forests and a critical habitat feature for wildlife.
They provide places for many birds and mammals to forage, den, nest, perch, and roost. Snags are particularly important for cavity nesting birds like woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees; for bats that roost within cavities, crevices, and flaky bark; and for countless species that rely on the abundant insects, fungi, and lichens as a food source. [Read more…] about Deadwood: The Importance of Standing Dead Trees
If not for a fungus, Santa’s flying sleigh would be grounded. If that were the case, the only toys he could distribute would be to the elves who made them in the first place, which kind of spoils the whole surprise element.
The truth is that Mister Claus relies on Amanita muscaria, a mushroom which grows among pine and birch, to zip around the world on Christmas Eve. [Read more…] about Santa’s High Reindeer & Alice in Wonderland
If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then surely the friend of my enemy is my enemy. This inverted cliche is one way to characterize the tangled relationship between ash trees and the ash-tree bolete.
The ash-tree bolete (Boletinellus merulioides) is a fan-shaped brown mushroom with an off-center stem. It grows in association with ash trees throughout eastern North America; however, that association is an odd one. [Read more…] about Ash Tree Bolete: A Tangled Story of Ash, Aphid & Fungus
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