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

Creating cycles: transforming my yard waste into oyster mushrooms, and compost using a solar cooker and canning jars. Haven’t used the city green bin in 4 years and my soil shows it. I need to build this process out into a talk / protocol. #mushroom #solarcooker #HomeEcologies

Carpets of Leptosiphon parviflorus today in the hills around #Vallejo. Endemic to California, this is just the start of their bloom season! #wildflowers #CaliforniaNativePlants

Plantago erecta is stunning, if you are willing to get on your belly and see it at its level, otherwise it’s easily walk and completely miss it due to it looking like a drab grey hued grass, which it’s not, 5 cm tall at most. #plantago #bellyplants #californiawildflowers #flowers

Fossombronia from the Oakland hills. By far one of the best looking liverworts around. If springtails go to raves in the Oakland hills this is definitely the disco balls they dance beneath. #oakalnd #Fossombronia #liverworts #nature

I’m always fascinated when distant species of #fungi choose the same bright color in an otherwise dark forest. What evolutionary advantage selected for the brilliant red of Hygrocybe laetissima and Sarcoscypha cf. coccinea in the dark Umbellularia californica forests of the SF Bay Area? #lakechabot

Fritillaria lilaceae has mild UV fluorescence under 365 nm light. Happy to cross this off my to test list tonight! Many other #Fritillaria have some dramatic UV fluorescence in the red spectrum #CNPS #wildflower

Gave a talk and walk at China Camp State Park yesterday on Fungal diversity in California. I’m grateful to the volunteers that help put on events like this at state and local parks, it’s their enthusiasm that makes the general public appreciate the treasures of public lands.

Was struggling with some #FritFOMO this week, but luckily was able to get out and see some of the rare #Fritillaria lilaceae in bloom in an east bay park. Fritillaria is a stunning bulb forming genus that is distributed across most of the northern hemisphere and can thrive in some rough habitats

Apricot is #blooming in the yard during a bit of a cold front and since I’m not seeing more than thrips out #pollinating I’m doing my post work decompress hand pollinating all the blooms. As we teeter towards an insect apocalypse I imagine this might be good practice for one that loves fruit.

Two years in the making: first tasting of Naranjilla / Lulo aka Solanum quitoense from my beautiful plant in the SF Bay Area. Smells like guava-pineapple-citrus and wow what a complex flavor. Excited to also have a lot of seeds now so I can attempt an outdoor grow #naranjilla #lulo #tropicalfruit

As an amateur mycologist it’s always a great feeling to send a collection out to a researcher who wants them for a paper they are working on. These Poronia are headed to Taiwan as of this morning. Collected in Arizona a few years ago. www.inaturalist.org/observations... #mushrooms #communityscience

Zythia resinae Because if something was going to live on coniferous resins a lichenized fungi was going to be top of my list. Seen today on wounded Doug Fir roots in Marin, California. It is found in North America and Eurasia, so check your sappy needled trees! #fungi #lichens #Zythia

I’m still blown away by how good of a food technology #chickens are. An essential part of my yard ecosystem in that they can take waste and up cycle it into single serving, shelf stable, calcium carbonate packaged protein pods. They do need to be managed though or kiss all you leafy plants goodbye.

Ate today’s Amanita velosa too fast to even get pictures, so please enjoy this stunning Amanita section vaginatae, also delicious and found today. #Amanita is the apex Genus - some will kill you (sect. phalloideae), some will cause a dissociative high (sect. amanita), and others are just scrumptious