Aspens

Imagine Thoreau doing a stint as greeter at Wallmart and you'll have a sound idea of my day. Not that I'm anywhere near the naturalist that Thoreau was nor my job as unfriendly as smiling for a big corporation but a six hour shift as door security at a sporting facility is a little out of character. Luckily my shift started early enough that I had a chance to take a short hike at a nearby park, Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve, after I was done.

Driving past Hanrehan Lake I could see wide traces of open water, and walking the trails of the park most of the smaller wetlands were partly open as well. If the prediction for rain and possibly thunderstorms holds the remaining ice will go quickly. The narrow gaps of open water between shore and the main body of lake ice reminded me of a few spring ice-fishing outings when I was young when makeshift bridges were thrown out across this gap while the main lake ice was still sound enough to fish. I'm not certain I would try that anymore, especially on these shallow southern Minnesota lakes.

A few people walked their dogs, a few people hiked, but mostly the park trails were empty and quiet and I enjoyed the comfortable weather and the moments of quiet. Before leaving I took photos of two kinds of phytopathogenic fungi—Aspen Bracket and Black Knot. Aspen Bracket are the fruiting bodies of Phellinus tremulae which causes Aspen trunk rot. The brackets have always reminded me of steps or the artificial climbing holds used on climbing walls and no doubt could be used to climb the trees if they were abundant enough or spread out along the trunk. Black Knot is a fungi that affects trees of the genus Prunus like Chokecherry and Wild Plum. According to one website, Black Knot resembles burnt marshmallows on a branch, which is a pretty good description.

Posted on 06 de março de 2017, 03:35 AM by