Bosque de Bellver

Oxalis pes-caprae is an invasive species that is very prevalent all over the island. It is a beautiful bright green with yellow flowers. 

Arisarum vulgare was also carpeting the space that wasn't already occupied by trees, shrubs or Oxalis pes-caprae.

Lentisco (Pistacia lentiscus) is a very common shrub that I have seen all over the island with very bright berries.  It is a member of the Anacardiaceae family. 

Pinus halepensis is the dominant conifer species here on the island. 

Some wild lavender (Lavendula dentata).

Going after a crustose lichen on a lentisco. 

A little community garden at the foot of the Bellver Castle. 

Checking out some invasive Opuntia that can be seen all over the island.

Anagyris foetida is a beautiful shrub that I have seen a few times during my explorations on Mallorca. This plant is supposedly toxic so do not eat it!

A closeup of the acebuche (Olea europaea var. sylvestris) fruits. 

That cute little ascocarp to the left of the terricolous lichen I believe is Peziza subviolacea. The amazing folks at the University of the Balearic Islands also have a virtual herbarium of fungi! Unfortunately, for those of you that do not speak Castellano or Catalan, there is no English version. Luckily scientific names are universal!

Possibly an Amanita species? I have seen this guy all over the island in mountains and in fields. 

This wood rotter I encountered on a P. halepensis reminded me a lot of Porodedaelea pini.

The flowers of the madroño (Arbutus unedo).

La Trapa

We went on a hike in La Trapa in the northern part part of Mallorca near the tiny town of Sant Elm in the Tramuntana mountain range. 

Merendera filifolia

I had never seen anything like these specimens of the Lilliaceae that grow directly out of the ground! When I saw one for the first time I thought someone had picked the flower and stuck it in the ground. And then I saw them everywhere!

Viola arborescens is a very distinctive violet because the leaves are not heart-shaped.

Arisarum vulgare was abundant all along the trail at all elevations. The common name for A. vulgare here in Mallorca is frailillo. This name means "little friar" because the leaf surrounding the inflorescence looks like the hood of a friar and the inflorescence itself looks like the friar's big nose.

This really is a gorgeous specimen of the Araceae. And to think, in November! The flowering time is apparently December to March and they are very common here.

A pretty wide variety of colors on these guys. Unfortunately my camera wouldn't focus.

Me botanizing.

See the little purple heads of the Arisarum vulgare flowers poking up above the bright green foliage?

Leafy liverwort or some kind of Lycophyta?

Wild rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) or Romero, as it is called in Spanish is also very abundant on the island.

Some kind of poroid Basidiomycete that was absolutely everywhere in the lower elevation parts of the hike. 

You can somewhat see the poroid hymenophore in this picture.

I wish I had gotten a chance to look at these mushrooms more closely but they were not that common and the group we were with was keeping up quite a fast pace.

What stunning color. I wish I had an amazing website at my fingertips for fungus like I do for flowers with the Virtual Herbarium.

Crocus cambessedesii is called Safrá and is an endemic species of Mallorca and Menorca. It flowers from September to December in rocky areas. The leaves pop out after the plant is done flowering.

The heart shaped leaves in this picture are from the frailillo. 

The climate here is pretty arid, with lots of Pino Carrasco (Pinus halepensis) everywhere.

Heather (Erica multiflora) was also very abundant and very much in flower. 

I will definitely be returning to La Trapa more towards the springtime to check out what plants are starting to flower!

Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park

I went camping over the weekend at Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park and I saw many species I have seen many times and also species I have never seen before, which is always a pleasant surprise.

The thalloid liverwort Conocephalum conicum

This is an old decaying fruiting body of Phaeolus schweinitzii that I found at the base of a Douglas Fir (Psuedotsuga menziesii). This fungus is a root/butt rotter and this tree will most likely fall over in the next few years depending on how extensive the rot is.

I was ecstatic when I found this rare species! This saprotrophic, achlorophyllous flower is called Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora)because it looks somewhat like a pipe. There were 3 patches of them along the trail I was hiking.

The beautiful California Rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum)

Cladonia bellidiflora

A wild hazelnut fruit

Some gorgeous orange slash rotters with a poroid hymneophore that I saw in Fern Canyon

My old friend Fomitopsis pinicola. I was very ashamed of myself because I couldn't remember the name of this VERY common slash rotter for the longest time.

Peltigera neopolydactyla

Lobaria pulmonaria

Another saprotrophic, achlorophyllous flower I have never seen before called False Pink Asparagus (Hermitomes congestum)

I decided that this is the Coast Lily (Lilium maritimum)even though there are many other species of Lilium that look quite similar

I also finally noticed for the first time that there are tons of Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) growing in the park. I had only noticed them before as scrubby little sunlight deprived trees in the Arcata Community Forest.

Skunk Cabbage Trail

Yesterday I went for an 8 mile hike on the Skunk Cabbage Trail. It was an excellent hike because it covers three different habitats: Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis)and Red Alder(Alnus rubra)dominated forest to Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)forest and then finally coastal scrub. With all of these habitats, I saw a wide diversity of bryophytes, a few lichens, many mushrooms, and some beautiful angiosperms.

This snag is covered with the Icicle Moss (Isothecium myosuroides)

This is definitely some kind of Polytrichopsidan moss, maybe even a Polytrichum sp.

Redwood Sorrel(Oxalis oregana)carpets the floor of the Redwood dominated forest

Fairy Bells (Disporum smithii)

I believe that these are Turkey Tail mushrooms (Trametes versicolor) but it has been a while since Forest Pathology. They had a poroid hymenophore

This picture is a bit blurry but it works. This is Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)and I was excited to see it because I had never seen it on a hike before

False Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum)

These mushrooms are probably Armillaria sp because they were on an old Alder snag. I didn't check for rhizomorphs

Rhizomnium glabrescens

Buckiella undulatum

This lichen, Peltigera membranecea, was all over the trees and on the ground, but usually growing on some moss. Looks like it is growing on Kindbergia praelonga

Frullania sp on Alder

This is the first time I have seen Conocephalum conicum in the wild even though it is really common

Plagiomnium insigne was growing very thickly on the sides of the path

This is Wild Cucumber (Marah oreganus) and unfortunately the spiky cucumber fruits are not edible. It also makes the giant taproot seen below

We stumbled upon this huge root (I have actually seen a bigger one before on the HSU campus). We cut into it and it was quite soft and actually smelled really good

Kindbergia praelonga was very abundant in the coastal and Sitka Spruce/Alder dominated areas

Disclaimer: I did some pretty lazy botanizing and identified many of these species based on other pictures and books I have without doing any keying. So there is a good chance some of the species could be wrong.