from here
By JIM SOLBERG . During a recent visit to the Black River State Forest, I found evidence that summer is almost over. I was sad to see that the sundew plants I watched all summer were almost gone. But some new plants were out in abundance. Goldenrods in particular were growing where there were milkweed and knapweed flowers earlier in the summer.
But the most interesting harbingers of early fall were mushrooms growing in the woods after the recent rains. I saw an edible bolete like those I picked in La Crosse County last year, and some more colorful mushrooms that will probably be around for awhile.
Red-capped russulas of various species, for instance, are very common mushrooms in late summer and are often nibbled by insects, squirrels and deer. They look a lot alike, but some are edible while others are at least mildly poisonous. I leave them for the critters.
The bright yellow fly amanita often grows under pines and birch, and reaches a width of five inches or more. It grows around here from late summer to November. The yellow cap is marked by whitish growths on its surface. Fly amanitas are not especially deadly, but they are considered poisonous. They are also often eaten by other critters though.
Goldenrod attracts many insects
The goldenrod flowers in Jackson County were attracting many small bumblebees and wasps. Assassin bugs and crab spiders waited in the blossoms to grab the unwary visitors.
The next day, I visited some more extensive goldenrod patches in Vernon County. The goldenrods there were head high and were abuzz with insects. There were some bumblebees and a few wasps, but a lot more honeybees.
In addition there were katydids, a few butterflies, several bee mimicking flies and even some ants tending a herd of leafhoppers or froghoppers.
I occasionally see ants that have formed such mutually satisfactory relationships with various members of the Homoptera suborder. That includes the cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, froghoppers and aphids.
These insects feed by sucking juices from plants and at times, they can become serious garden pests. The ants tap sweet liquids secreted by the aphids or leafhoppers, and the homopterans apparently get the protection of the much fiercer ants. Seems like a good deal for everybody.
Eddie Meadows and me
Last week I heard an extraordinary story on CNN. An experienced 62 year-old named Eddie Meadows was jogging and took a shortcut through some woods near the University of Central Florida. He worked at a nearby Naval Research Center and knew the area well, but somehow he got so lost in the swampy woods that he wasn’t found for four days.
The amazing thing is that he was not all that far from the campus the whole time (he even heard the UCF band playing), while dozens of people were also searching for him. Seem impossible? Well, I could easily understand how he got lost in the first place. After all, I was also lost for a while in the semi-swampy Jackson County woods I was exploring only the day before I heard about Eddie Meadows.
It’s easier to do than you might think. You don’t need to tromp off into the jungles or the mountains. All you need to do is to get off an established trail far enough that you can no longer see it. Then, if the woods look pretty much alike in every direction, you can easily get disoriented and end up wandering aimlessly, often in circles.
I had done just that only few hundred yards from my car, and I no longer knew where my trail was. But in my case, I eventually found the correct trail in about 20 minutes or so. If I had blundered off in the wrong direction, I could have gone for miles and also wandered for days before I hit a road. Was I just lucky? Certainly, but I remained calm when I realized that I didn’t know the way back and I used my head.
Most importantly, I didn’t panic. I was able to carefully retrace my steps to a spot that I DID recognize — a small, wet meadow near an ancient sphagnum-carpeted bog. I knew by the position of the sun which end of the meadow I had come in from and therefore, the approximate direction I needed to go to get back on track.
But I simply could not recognize the path that I had entered by. I began to methodically test each of the possible trails leading back into the woods until I knew that each was the wrong one.
I always kept the meadow in sight though, so I could return to that familiar reference point. Finally, I searched for a spot on the edge of the meadow that gave a view that looked most like the scene I remembered seeing when I first came in. When I was reasonably sure of that place, I turned to face what presumably was where I came out of the woods.
It still didn’t look familiar, but it almost had to be the right direction, so I ventured in a ways. Finally, a thin deer trail a couple hundred feet into the woods began to look vaguely familiar (but don’t they all) and then I definitely recognized a bright yellow amanita that I had photographed on the way in.
Bingo! I was home free from that point on. That deer trail led to the main trail that eventually led back to my car.
That was a close one. I’ll think twice before going alone beyond recognizable trails in thick woods again. Rule No. 1 for wilderness hikers: STAY ON THE TRAIL!
Whaditiz
A mutually beneficial relationship between two different species of animals is called symbiosis.
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Bring GPS, mark your car, the amanita mushrooms you found, and the ancient pond, then go in whatever direction you want, just use the GPS to get home. I never stick to the trail.
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