March 31, 2024 St Andrew’s Forest Farm on Easter Sunday

Class Agaricomycetes growing on black cherry.

The underside of theAgaricomycetes shows teeth instead of pores or gills.

Of course we went over to continue to search for morels. It was a beautiful day and the farm was burgeoning with spring. We saw multiple colonies with thousands of mayapples emerging. Only a couple of the largest ones have flattened which is a great indicator of timing for morels to begin coming up. We found these new colonies of mayapples emerging in the pawpaw grove where we also found Virginia bluebells popping up. We noticed that the blueberry bushes are starting to leaf out.

Virginia bluebells not yet flowering but almost.

One colony of mayapples which has plenty of sun so we hope to see some fruit. We hear the taste is similar to pineapple and starburst candy. Yum!

Leucobryum moss found at the bottom of the slope.

Eastern fence lizard found up top in the clearing.

Genus Houstonia, flowering bluets, a native wildflower found covering the farm especially in clearings.

We got plenty of rain yesterday and can’t wait to go back out to search for the elusive morels.