Dead Man’s Fingers same clump right 12 days later than left
Dead Man’s Fingers (Xylaria
sp.) is an interesting fungus that, at stages during its life-cycle, does
resemble a dead man’s fingers reaching out of the ground. I found it in my yard
devoloping in my butterfly garden on woodchips placed to smother the grass. Dead
Man’s Fingers grow for several months and take on several forms during their
life-cycle.
Dead Man’s Fingers asexual phase
Early in its development , Dead Man’s Fingers produce a powdery bluish bloom of asexual spores. Later they develop tiny crack-like pockets on their surface that the sexual spores disperse through. These sexual spores provide the microscopic characters needed to identify the species. I think my species is in the Xylatia polymorpha complex. Polymorpha is aptly named because it means “many forms.” See Michael Kuo’s excellent MushroomExpert.com website for more information.
Dead Man’s Fingers left showing surface cracks- right enlargement of spore pockets
My main challenge with identifying fungi is the different forms the same fungus takes on during its lifetime. I am glad that Nature allowed me the opportunity to observe this fascinating fungus right outside my door.
At
Kensington Metropark near Milford Michigan a Sandhill Crane family has adopted
a Canada Goose gosling. This extended family is the most photographed bird
group in the state. A Canada Goose probably laid an egg in a Sandhill Crane
nest. When it hatched the cranes adopted it as their own; feeding the downy
gosling along with their own colt. Currently the gosling is feeding itself
while foraging with its family. It seems to be developing normally and appears
healthy.
Adult Sandhill Crane with gosling
This is the first documentation of a Sandhill Crane raising a Canada Goose but it might have occurred before. Sandhill Cranes are typically secretive nesters so a mixed family would be unobserved. There is an article from Alaska Public Radio by Nina Faust titled “The Goose that Thought He was a Sandhill Crane” that could document another mixed family. It documents a Canada Goose that is traveling around Homer with a Sandhill Crane family. No one witnessed a gosling with the cranes. I often see mixed flocks of cranes and geese in fields during the fall as they congregate before migration. An extended family would be unnoticeable.
I doubt we will ever know what happens to this family once the young fledge. All the birds are unbanded and they will be untrackable once they leave the area. I hope the gosling’s instincts allows her (or him) to be a normal Canada Goose despite its incredible upbringing.
I am assembling a talk on Michigan Invasive Species and needed photographs of Black Swallow-wort. I asked several friends for locations. I was surprised to discover that the first three stations I visited were Pale Swallow-wort.
Black Swallow-wort (Vincetoxicum
nigrum or Cynanchum louiseae)
and Pale Swallow-wort (Vincetoxicum
rossicum or Cynanchum rossicum) are two similar invasive
vines. Black Swallow-wort is also called Louise’s Swallow-wort or Black
Dog-strangling Vine. Other names for Pale Swallow-wort include: Dog-strangling
Vine or European Swallow-wort.
Pale Swallow-wort flowers L Black Swallow-wort flowers R
Most people attempt to distinguish the two species based on flower color. However, it is difficult, without some field experience, to separate these two species using the flower color. Dr. Anton Reznicek on the Michigan Flora website writes, “The corollas in both our species are dark purplish, but they run toward black in V. nigrum [Black Swallow-wort] and tend to be somewhat paler in V. rossicum [Pale Swallow-wort], which also has longer corolla lobes (at least twice as long as broad) and only half as many chromosomes.” In Black Swallow-wort the corollas (petals) are about as long as they are wide and are covered with fine hairs. In Pale Swallow-wort the corollas are about twice as long as wide and are hairless. Peduncles (flower cluster stalks) are shorter in Black Swallow-wort than Pale Swallow-wort.
Pale Swallow-wort flowers L Black Swallow-wort flowers R
My wife commented that the tips of the
flower buds on Black Swallow-wort are rounded and on Pale Swallow-wort they are
bluntly pointed. I do not know if this is constant, but it held true for our
limited sample.
Swallow-worts are in the family
Apocynaceae which includes the Milkweeds and Dogbanes.
Pale Swallow-wort seedpods
Swallow-worts are poisonous to Monarch larva. If a Monarch butterfly lays her eggs on the similar Swallow-wort instead of Milkweed (Asclepius spp.) then the larva die. An additional problem is that Swallow-worts are toxic to livestock and deer. In northern Oakland Co. Pale Swallow-wort is moving into pastures and causing problems for livestock.
Black Swallow-wort has been in Michigan since the 1880s. Its distribution is poorly known and should be reported wherever it is seen. Collected specimens are from the southern four tiers of counties and then at the tip of the Lower Peninsula. It must be found at other sites in northern Michigan. There are reports from the Traverse City Area. Pale Swallow-wort was first reported in 1968 and we have records from four counties in the southern three tiers. As the Michigan Flora website says, “It should be stamped out wherever observed.” Reports of both Swallow-worts should be made through the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network (MISIN). They have an online reporting tool and also a downloadable smart phone app.
I thank John DeLisle of Natural Community Services, Donna Kuchapski, and Debbie Jackson for helping me locate Swallow-wort stations.
