By Josie Laing

This week I embarked on a wander through High Falls Conservation Area in Philmont. While spring seems to be hinting at its return with the rising of Daffodils and Day Lily shoots in the garden, within the forest, life is still resting, and the thick layer of leaves awaits the cycling of spring. I decided to hone in on the spore-bearing organisms of this hemlock/hardwood forest, evergreen ferns, mosses, lichens, and fungi…

First off we have the Marginal Wood Fern, Dryopteris marginalis. This evergreen fern is found on rocky slopes and rich, mixed forests. Fern fronds grow from a rhizome, growing into a larger and larger clump each year. All wood ferns, the Dryopteridaceae family, have golden scales on the stalks of the fronds. In this photo, you can see them on the above-ground portion of the rhizome as well. This fern is twice pinnate, meaning the leaflets coming off of the main stalk, have their own leaflets. If these second-order leaflets, the pinna, had their own leaflets, the frond would be three times pinnate. The pinna of this fern has a scalloped edge and feathery venation that rounds off at the margin.

Some ferns have separate fronds that hold their spores. On these fertile fronds, the spores are held within sporangia, small capsules gathered in a cluster called a sorus. The sori can take different forms, based on how the sporangia are held. In the Marginal Wood Fern, the sporangia are contained by a kidney-shaped indusium. This layer of tissue wraps around the sporangia and shrivels to expose them for spore dispersal. This kidney shape is characteristic of the Dryopteris species. The photo on the right shows the exposed sporangia, without an indusium of another wood fern.

The Christmas Fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, is another evergreen fern like the Marginal Wood Fern, except that it is once pinnate. The pinna has an asymmetrical shape, which looks like a stocking. The fertile and sterile fronds of this species look quite different. The photo on the left is the sterile frond, with broader and larger leaves. The next photos show how the fertile frond differs.

The fertile frond leaflets are longer and taper more at the tip, especially the leaflets at the tip of the frond. Here you can see the shriveled-up remnants of the indusium. In Christmas Ferns, the indusium forms an umbrella over the sporangia, as opposed to the kidney shape of the Marginal Wood Fern or lacking an indusium altogether.

On to the mosses. While I do not claim to be an authoritative source on moss identification, I tried my hand at identifying some. Lots of mosses require microscopic examination for confirmation. All of the guesses I made are very common species in the region, so hopefully, I’m not too far off. This one, I believe is the Pretty Branch Moss, Callicladium haldanianum. It is carpeting moss that creates mats on the surfaces of rocks or wood. These surfaces are often teeming with diversity. Many lichen and moss species live amongst and intertwined with each other. This species grows on wood and unlike many other mosses, doesn’t often share space with other species.

The interesting corrugation and cup shape of the sporophyte capsule makes me think this is a species of Orthotrichum. It is an acrocarpous moss, which describes how the sporophyte emerged from the apex of the stem or branch, as opposed to emerging from lateral, carpeting branches. The sporophyte is the adult stage of mosses and holds the capsule where the spores mature for dispersal. There is a wide range of shapes and styles the capsule can take form. In this case, the capsule is held closely to the leaves and when they mature, it narrows below a wide mouth, rimmed with “teeth” which help with spore dispersal.

I believe this to be the Brocade Moss, Callicladium imponens (syn. Hypnum imponens). This is also a widespread species and looks like small ferns arising from the dense, soft carpeted mass. The branching is described as pinnate because of the feather-like attachment of secondary branches on either side. The leaves on the branches are circinate, or sickle-shaped, forming tight, braid-like leaflets.

This moss might be a species of Hedwigia. This group is highly tolerant of being dried out and revived. The leaves are very oppressed in this photo because they are dried out. The capsule is held immersed in the leaves like the Otrichium, and is spherical, with a flat cap. Without a hand lens, the capsule looks like little flowers or berries on the end of the branch. You can also see the neighboring lichen covering the surface of the rock below.

Next up we have lichens! This beautiful branching lichen is a species of Cladonia. This genus has species that occur all over the world, from North Carolina sand dunes to the arctic circle, where it is eaten by reindeer and caribou. Lichens aren’t technically one organism, but integration of two or three kinds of organisms! Fungi provide the filamentous structural system, and an organism with chlorophyll (algae or cyanobacteria) provides the food. This complex system results in these beautiful structures which can be keystone species in a variety of ecosystems that operate both as a decomposer and a producer.

This is another species of Cladonia, which is not as branched. It is most likely the Common Powderhorn, C. coniocraea. Here you can see the primary thallus, which is the green, leaf-like structure. The secondary thallus is the podetium. These branches emerge for reproduction, through the soredia on the surface. These are clusters of fungal hyphae wrapped around cyanobacteria and green algae, the fungal symbiont producing the spores.

While taking photos of the Marginal Wood Fern, I found this little mushroom all by itself. You can see the white mycelium intertwined in the decomposing stick and the leaf litter around. I have found it to be the Scurfy Twiglet (one of the cutest names ever), Tubaria furfuracea, a saprophyte. This mushroom is known to emerge following a thaw, as we just had with the recent warm spell. It has a hygrophanous cap, where the cap changes color with moisture, becoming more translucent. 

Saprophytic fungi are responsible for processing organic matter in the environment. In logs, the mycelium eats and grows within the wood and when it reaches the surface, it produces the mushroom to spread spores. The true Turkey Tail mushroom, Trametes versicolor, and the False Turkey Tail, Stereum ostrea are two very common saprophytes in our area and both live off of dead hardwood logs. A few ways to distinguish the true Turkey Tail from the false is by the cap coloring, the underside, and the growth pattern. The species name is “versicolor” for the variation in the coloring of this species. This example leans towards the more blue-toned variety. Sometimes they are orange and red, sometimes warm shades of brown or a range of blue-gray. But no matter the color variation, there are always distinct, ringed zones. Another way to differentiate these two species, and other similar crust fungi, is by looking at the porous underside of the true Turkey Tail. Lastly, the true Turkey Tail often fuses together, sometimes as layered florets on the surface of a log. For more details on Turkey Tail and its other look-alikes, this website has a simple step-by-step key. It’s fun to test yourself and check them while on walks, but please consult an experienced forager before consumption, the False Turkey Tail is not the only look alike! https://www.mushroomexpert.com/trametes_versicolor.html