radbackedsalamander's Favorites

Complete absence of dark 'tear-drop" marking under eye. Side with irregular black speckles, row of black spots midway through caudal fin. Inhabiting cold, spring-fed water (not typically inhabited by G. affinis).

Abundant in spring-fed old hatchery pond on campus. Had heard talks about this and other Gambusia species in the region at the SWAN meetings earlier in the day.

This species isn’t typically recognized from New England where it is subsumed under Carya glabra, but given the strange habitat (sandy outwash with perched water table over silt-clay glaciolacustrine sediment) and the fact that I’ve never seen a pignut like this, I’m going to throw out the C. ovalis ID, which is recognized in Weakley’s flora of the Southeast (and lists MA as the northern extent).

A life species for me! This little squirrel was digging seeds out of the snow under the bird feeder. I've thought we might have flying squirrels here because sometimes late at night, we hear the typical sounds of red or gray squirrels racing along the outside of our log cabin walls, but likely not either of those diurnal species.

Photos taken through window glass and screen (left on to prevent window hits).

Pileus: (3) - (57)mm, hemispheric when young, rarely subplane in age, hygrophanous, staining strongly bluish. gills attached, sets of short gills of differing lengths.

Stipe: exannulate, staining bluish to blackish, hollow in age, base strongly rhizomorphic.

Spores: ellipsoid to mango shaped (9.2)10-13(14.6) x 5.7-7.3(9.7) microns. dark purple-brown in deposit.

Cheilocystidia: 19-31 x 5.3-8.6 microns occasionally bifurcate, very rarely trifurcate.

Pleurocystidia: absent or very rare. a few bifurcate structures observed that might be pleurocystidia.

Basidia: 26-32 microns. all basidia appear to be 4 spored.

Bioassay: strongly active.

Found under a holly bush in man-made mulch at the edge of a lawn. The spores are slightly larger than what has previously been described for Psilocybe baeocystis.

Microscopy photos by Alan Rockefeller. Additional microscopic measurements and photos by Workman (sporeworks) in 2007.