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100 Species Challenge

Nature Study: Horsetail or Scouring Rush

On our first Rideau Trail walk, we saw several colonies of amazing green stems in a ditch.  Each plant is, in fact, just a stem consisting of long finely ridged sections.  Each section fits into a lower one and is held in by a fringe of darker or lighter vegetation.  I remember this unique plant from the prairies of […]

Fairy Ring of Mushrooms

    On our front lawn we had a huge fairy ring of mushrooms.  They start off as white buttons and then grow huge, flatten out, and turn brown.  This is the story of how we tried to identify them and failed… at least once. According to my little Golden Guidebook to Non-Flowering Plants, they could […]

Green Dragon

A spike full of tiny, bright orange berries caught my eye some time ago when I was walking through a soggy area of our woods.  Each time I went, I forgot to take my camera along, and this week all the orange berries had fallen off.  Then we went for a hike in the Gatineau region […]

The 100-Species Challenge

  Ever since my sister taught me to really look at plants, I’ve been fascinated by them.  Now thirty years later, I’m finally starting a project I’ve dreamed about  for years:  to know more about the plants and animals that grow nearby.  After all, there are hundreds of species in our little swampy, foresty, grassy, boggy area, to say nothing of […]