BC, Wells Gray, 20080524
Edgewood Blue, flowers and fungus. 

 Flowers 

Along far edge of wetlands, only short walk.  Lots of sedges are also in bloom, but I skipped them in favor of the more showy or otherwise interesting flowers. 

Flowers 

Calypso bulbosa [] 

Three lovelies together right in moss at edge of bog, sheltered by cedar "frond".

Trientalis arctica [] 

 GEN wee little herb, abundant on low gravelly disturbed causeway through middle of wetlands, covered all over with minute barely-stipitate red glands
 LF alt, oblance, sess, glab w some glands esp along midrib above, shiny, ascend, whorled around stem
 INFL 1 per axil near top
 SEP 7, v narr, glab, reddish, sep
 PET 7, white, spread, sep, 8x2.5mm, lance, v long pedicellate, pedicel d glandular, joined at v base in ring around mid-ovary?, stamen att at v base in center of petal base (not alt petals)
 STAM 7, excl, white glab fil, yell clean handsome anthers basifix and dehisc via slits
 OV 1, sup, green, glab, 1 chamb, axial placent, sev ovules (7?)
 STYLE 1 pale greenish, glab, stigma ring at top, eq stam
 FR allegedly looks like a little soccer ball? 

Viola macloskeyi [] 

 GEN violet, at water's edge, no stolons on mine
 ST two tin bracts midway but otherwise leafless
 LF broadly ov, obtuse to rounded, shallowly coarsely crenate, cordate, glab but for lines of hairs along two ridges on back of petioles
 PET white w dk fine purp lines on lower three, faintly greenish bel, ~10mm in total, short blunt spur

Rubus pubescens [] 

 GEN wee herb, near water's edge
 ST densely shaggy (mostly descending) fine hairy
 LF ternate, shiny, quilted, deeply biserrate, alt, big lance entire stips
 SEP joined, 6, delt, spread hairy and gland hairy outside
 PET white, 6, crinkly, spread, sep, narr spatulate, ~8x2mm? 
 STAM many, flattened with little humps on "shoulders"
 OV many, sup
 STYLE many

Drosera rotundifolia [] 

 GEN little sundew
 LF prostrate in rosette, 7-8mm broad
Coming up in vast numbers in one mossy bog near water's edge.

Menyanthes trifoliata [] 

 GEN largish aquatic flower
 ST long stolon with sheathing leaves densely packed along length? 
 LF alt, ternate, lflts oblance entire, glab, erect petiole, fleshy stem and petiole, thick lflts, no petiolules
 INFL erect dense raceme on tall peduncle, small reddish scale-like appressed bracts at base of pedicels
 SEP 5,appress, lance, joined at base, 8x2mm, glab
 PET white to faintly pinkish esp near tips, 5, join for 6mm then spread gracefully, limb 10x4mm lance, total 20-25mm wide, v conspic shaggy v thick white hairs on inner surface of petals, sl bulbous tips to hairs
 STAM 5, excl, anth dk purp-reddish, deeply lobed bel, dorsifix, yell pollen quite beautiful!, att near base of petals, alt petals
 OV nearly superior, 1 chamb, 3 placental ribs on inner surface, many ovules
 STYLE 1, < stam, 3 large short-lobed stigma
Hmmm, I guess it is 3-carpellate despite single chambered ovary.

Amelanchier alnifolia [] 

 GEN shrub
 LF simple, ellip, serr, hairy scale-like stips, thinly golden-tomentose below
 INFL raceme
 SEP 5, joined around middle of squat ovary
 PET 5, sep, showy, scraggly, 15x5mm, white
 STAM many, att on disk around ov
 OV semi-inf, 10 ovules, 5 chamb with 2 ovules each or 10 chambers, d tomentose
 STYLE 5-parted but joined below

Pholiota vernalis [] 

 GEN small mushroom, on v wet rotting conifer log, quite a few in loose grouping, odor pleasant earthy
 ST 25x3mm, mostly curvy, brownish, v d white tomentose half to more the way up, strongly fibrillose and scurfy even above remnants of fibrillose veil, bends easily without breaking, hollow
 CAP 10-15mm, convex to bell, umbo, smooth, shiny, clean, "waxy" honey brown to rich reddish brown at marg, marg curled under, hygrophanous, fading buff from center out, cuticle cellular with cells 50-80x15-20um rectangular
 FLESH off-white in cap, watery-brown in stem, yellow where maggot has been munching
 GILL notched but attached, tan, close, somewhat crenate edges, not v thin but not waxy
 SPORE brown (gray-brown?), smooth, ellip but somewhat assymetric, germ pore, 6-7x4um
Searched Arora far and wide.  Cellular cap suggested Agrocybe (but no species match) and rules out quite a number (Galerina, Strophariaceae, etc.) But it didn't rule out Pholiota (only "generally filamentous"). Arora suggests Pholiota vernalis, and the trial key from svims concurs (www.svims.ca).  Phew.  These silly brown mushrooms are a royal pain.

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Last changed on May 25, 2008