Exploring the diversity literally outside my door. Found this wonderful springtail, maybe Entomobrya atrocincta, in the leaves decaying next to my front door. #springtails #urbanBiodiversity

Backyard springtails have been very good as of late #springtails #thingsthatgojumpinthenight

The common garden snail is very impressive under black light. Seen on a neighborhood walk last night #UVfluorescence #snail #glow

Was helping out with a Fungal Survey in Big Sur this weekend and instead of getting adequate sleep hiked way down to a -1 tide and found out that amphipods fluoresce very strongly under UV Light (365 nm). #UVfluorescence #glow #UVF #amphipod #science

Cystolepiota from this week’s Fungal Diversity Survey #FUNDIS collection trip in Big Sur’s Eastern Range. #mushroom #fungi #mycology #fungalfriends #🍄 #cystolepiota

Deconica cf. inquilina under 365 nm light Seen in Mendocino County, CA yesterday. One of the best use cases for UV fluorescence is quickly being able to differentiate mushrooms in the Genus Deconica from other similar looking dark spored fungi that hang out in the same environment #fungi #mushroom

Gliophorus cf. psittacinus Based upon current ITS sequences on the west coast of North America we have at least 3 genetically distinct mushrooms going as the "Parrot Mushroom," called so due to its dizzying array of colors from chartreuse to orange to pink. #mushrooms #fungi #fungifriends #mendocino

Chanterelles are still up in Humboldt County and the extra long growing season is resulting in some of the biggest C. formosus I’ve ever encountered #mushrooms #fungi #fungifriends #chanterelles

Found yesterday in the Oakland Hills in half buried and well decayed Coyote Brush (Baccharis pilularis). This small and widely distributed Sclerotiniacee is easy to miss as they are rarely larger than 0.5 cm #fungi #fungifriends #mushroom #oaklandmushrooms #EBRP

Cortinarius vanduzerensis The most impressive slime veil of any mushroom that I am familiar with in California. Why invest so much energy in a slimy cap? Could be the ability to trap arthropods attempting to eat the gills or just a way to deal with rain. #mushrooms #fungi #mendocino #california

Excited to see Dendrocollybia racemosa in the Oakland Hills this week. This mushroom hedges it’s reproductive bet by making sexual spores in the gills of the cap and asexual spores on the branches on the stem. It parasitizes Russulaceae fungi and is having a very good year #mushrooms #Oakland #fungi

Happened to catch a brown rat this morning while trying to leave town. It was surprisingly UV fluorescent under 365 nm light. if you encounter UV fluorescent organisms please consider adding them to this project on iNat that I curate: www.inaturalist.org/projects/uv-... #UVfluorescence #rats #UVF

Did anyone else see a weird arc above the Aurora last night? Trying to rule out if being an artifact from my phone. It seemed most present at 8:39 PST and then faded as the light show got more intense. If you saw it, please make an observation of it on www.aurorasaurus.org #aurora #northernlights

Getting some nice #northernlights action in the #Oakland hills right now. Remember to add your photos to www.aurorasaurus.org #aurora

Lucked out and saw the bay areas rain beetle, Pleocoma behrensi, during that good rain we just had. These beetles live under ground for up to 14 years, adult males emerge for a few days to find mates and then die. None of the adults have mouths. #Pleocoma #RainBeetles #beetles #SFBAY #oakland

The Sierra Nevada in California just got a flirt of snow on Friday, enough cold to really set off fall colors and the last push of high high elevations mushrooms. Made a few collections of Cortinarius that I can’t identify which always feels good. #sierranevada #fallcolors #fall

I love UV fluorescence and Craig does this on a very high level with California Native plants. Craig’s ever growing catalog of images is stunning, worth following.

It’s Powdery Mildew season for all those that celebrate! Found in a London Plane Tree today in San Leandro, California #fungi #Erysiphe #powderymildew

#AllThingsFungiFestival2025 was incredible. many good speakers, including Merlin Sheldrake. Lots of fungal activity in the forest this year and a wonderful hands on Community Mycology tent dedicated to getting people hands on skills. #fungi #festival #mushrooms #

Nice flush of Fly Death Fungus in the yard this week. Doing my best to help it along like I use to do at my old apt complex where a single infected fly lead to ~7+ years of zombifies flies. Check out imafungus.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... for a great overview of their biology

Ran the moth light in the front yard (San Leandro, CA) and turned up this Florida Pink Scavenger (Anatrachyntis badia). With any luck I’ll hit 500 species documented in my yard by the end of the year using iNaturalist. #moths #biodiversity

Hygrophorus goetzei spotted this weekend in what is currently the southernmost portion of its range based upon iNaturalist data. It associates with Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) which continues down to Sequoia National Park, but so far no mushrooms seen there. #rarefungi

Saw my #FavoriteFly today at Lake Tahoe on some Mule’s Ears. The Sunflower Seed Maggot / Neotephritis finalis. It’s the chillest fly you’ll ever meet, all it wants to do is chill on a big soft leaf and maybe lay some eggs in the flowers. #diptera #macro #tahoe

Calochortus luteus also up in the serpentine zones of the Oakland hills right now. Crazy to think of what the serpentine wildflower display must have been like before the Oakalnd hills got developed and homes covered up these highly selective soils #calochortus #oakland #wildflowers

Found 3 previously unrecorded populations of Streptanthus glandulosus today in the Oakland hills by checking google satellite for exposed serpentine outcrops. By far my favorite Brassicaceae (mustard family) of the Bay Area. #Brassicaceae #Streptanthus #oakland #wildflowers

Bog beacons and some sundews from Northern California yesterday. Mitrula elegans is a semi aquatic fungus that can break down plant material in low oxygen aquatic environments. In California you mainly find it in the late spring in the mountains #mushroom #sundew #bogbeacon #Mitrula

Streptanthus polygaloides over the Feather River in California yesterday. Always nice to see a bucket list plant when you’re not expecting it. #Streptanthus #wildflower #flower 15 frame handheld stack on camera: OM1 90 mm macro

Finally got to see Pediocactus nigrispinus in habitat and in bloom! This rare cactus also known as the Snowball Cactus has a few populations in OR, WA, and ID. #Pediocactus #cactus #botany

Incredibly tiny Greeneocharis circumscissa and a good reminder why having a way to scale your tiny plants is important. Seen today near Frenchman Coulee, WA. #Cryptantha #Boraginaceae #wildflowers #TinyFlowers

Youth-on-Age aka Tolmiea menziesii, seen yesterday in the Tacoma WA area. Definitely one of my favorite common plants of the PNW #flower #botany #PNW

On the BioBlitz this week I think I saw the most impressive fog lichen display of my life. The fog lichen genus Niebla only occurs from Northern California to Baja and only within a short distance of the ocean. #lichen #fungifriends #FogLichen

As part of #CityNatureChallenge I will be running a #BioBlitz at @fibershed.bsky.social on Sunday 4/27 Excited to create a baseline of what is in the cool habit and help people see biodiversity and learn about all of the organisms they share the space with: fibershed.org/event/docume... #CNC2025

Lake Merritt BioBlitz tomorrow! Data will flow into the #CityNatureChallenge with observations made in #iNaturalist A great way to learn about the biodiversity around you and help contribute to our understanding of species biogeography #LakeMerritt #Oakland #CNC2025 #communityScience #science

Streptanthus tortuosus Mountain Jewel Flower Part of the mustard family (Brassicaceae) this plant is edible but not worth eating as the blooms are incredible once you get up close. Seen in Butte County, California this past week #flowers #Streptanthus #brassicaceae

Fringecup flower / Tellima grandiflora from Pt Reyes This week. #wildflower #flower

Juicy Morchella snyderi up at 4300 ft. Got to love those California spring morels #fungifriends #morchella #morel #mushroom #mycology

Fire morels are out in the mountains of California in the shadow of last year’s burns. #morels #firemorels #mushrooms #mycology

North Table Mountain is stunning right now. A glimpse into what California’s blooms were like pre-modern agriculture (?). #wildflowers #spring #CaliforniaLandscapes

Stork's-Bill Chytrid Synchytrium papillatum Found this weekend at Blue Oak Ranch Reserve run by UCB. Thu’s basal lineage of fungi is most known for attacking water associated organisms like frogs and salamanders but with enough moisture they’ll go after plants too #chytrid #fungi #galls

Found this cute little globular springtail on the morels from this week. #springtails #macro #macrophotography #arthropods #om1

Morchella cf. importuna found yesterday in a grove of Eucalytpus globulus that burned last year in Oakland. This morel is known from landscaping and disturbed zones in the western US, so not too surprising to see it up in a fire zone. #morel #mushroom #mycology #fungi #🍄 #ascomycota #morchella

#Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis / Western Fairy Slipper Saw close to a hundred of these this weekend in Marin County, California. In the right forest at the right time these can be very prolific. This will be out for a few more weeks in coastal California in deep dark forests. #orchid #wildflower

#Diplacus douglasii AKA Purple Mouse Ears Seen yesterday on the slopes of Mt Tamalpais. This flower is widely distributed across CA and Or and does well in serpentinite soils but can also be found in clay soils and eroded granite. #wildflowers #Diplacusdouglasii #CNPS #marincounty #botany

Amanita magniverrucata from My after work hike today. Amazed at how many of our spring time Amanitas are up right now in the #sfbay This Amanita doesn’t contain deadly amatoxins, but it’s in the Lepidella section which has a handful kidney toxins #mushroom #fungi #amanita #Amanitamagniverrucata

Lead an event with the Microscopical Society of SF today on using #Foldscopes in the field. Here is a Peziza #fungus we looked at using the 340x lens. Amazing what origami, a ball lens, and good engineering can do #microscopy #mycology #mushroom #DIYbio #biology #microscope #ascomycete #peziza

Genea sp. from the Oakland Hills thanks to @hilaryrosed.bsky.social who dug up more hypogeous fungi in a single afternoon than l've seen up there in a decade. It was incredible to observe a different way to see the land and the ease at which Rye and Pyro could find things buried in the duff.

Microglossum sp. from the Oakland hills today. Huge patch found by Grace Stark under the drip line of a California Bay Tree. These jade hued Microglossums in the SF Bay love the month of March and Bay trees, so if you're hoping to see them, now is the time. #mushroom #earthtongue #fungi #OM1 #macro

Flipped a log today and found the roundest Uroctonus mordax aka Western Forest #Scorpion I can remember. This species is very docile and I’ve handled them many times without them showing any signs of aggression. #LakeChabot #UroctonusMordax

Also up today near #LakeChabot was of the the small but wonderful flowers : Crassula connata. Pushing 3 cm this little plant is easy to overlook, but worth getting on the found to get a good look at. #california #wildflowers #CNPS #californiaNativePlants

Salvia columbariae aka Desert Chia from the slopes of San Leandro this morning. This tough little plant is one of my favorite early springs flowers as it grows in soils most other plants can’t. Seeds from this were consumed by many of California’s first peoples. #wildflower #CNPS #salvia #sanleandro