While playing outside yesterday, we noticed some weirdly interesting mushrooms on the side of an old pine tree stump. We poked and prodded them, and were surprised at how hard and tough they were! I came inside later to research exactly what they are, and it appears that they are turkey tail mushrooms -- but I'm not sure they are "true" turkey tail mushrooms, so we won't be boiling them to make tea, crushing them into powder, or even chewing them as we stroll through the woods, like one eminent herbalogist likes to do. True turkey tail mushrooms are said to be fantastic for all sorts of health woes: tumors, cancer, HIV, malaria, and more! If all that is indeed true, then we need to be doing some serious mushroom farming!
Today we went back out and pulled one of these off, which was more difficult than you'd think.
Lacy the WonderDog wanted to study it, too. {hee hee}
This study goes along with Outdoor Hour Challenge #41: Flowerless Plants. In the Handbook of Nature Study, we learned that these are considered saprophytes, which are a type of fungus that feeds on dead or decaying matter, rather than being a true parasite that steals nutrients from a living plant. Some varieties of bracket fungus, however, grow on living trees and are very harmful. There is no way to rid a tree of this fungus once it takes hold.
We're so out of practice with nature studies and our nature journal, that Kathryn is a little resistant to doing journal entries. I think it's because she's too much of a perfectionist with her drawing, so that's something we'll have to work on. For today, I printed out a photo of our fungi so she could paste that on her page and just write a few sentences about it.
I hope to be posting about many more nature studies as we try to get back into the habit of doing them!
Today we went back out and pulled one of these off, which was more difficult than you'd think.
Lacy the WonderDog wanted to study it, too. {hee hee}
This study goes along with Outdoor Hour Challenge #41: Flowerless Plants. In the Handbook of Nature Study, we learned that these are considered saprophytes, which are a type of fungus that feeds on dead or decaying matter, rather than being a true parasite that steals nutrients from a living plant. Some varieties of bracket fungus, however, grow on living trees and are very harmful. There is no way to rid a tree of this fungus once it takes hold.
We're so out of practice with nature studies and our nature journal, that Kathryn is a little resistant to doing journal entries. I think it's because she's too much of a perfectionist with her drawing, so that's something we'll have to work on. For today, I printed out a photo of our fungi so she could paste that on her page and just write a few sentences about it.
I hope to be posting about many more nature studies as we try to get back into the habit of doing them!
