Colleen and Cody Pine-Ridge

We left the main group and looked around on the path to the right of the main one to try and find some organisms that other students maybe didn’t see. When we were looking for fungi we tried looking for logs in damp and shaded areas.

Colleen -

I have been to Pine Ridge Park before but I primarily spent my time near the other entrance of the park and have spent very little time in the area we were mostly in. After being on the lookout for fungi made me realize just how much there was in the park. Can fungi be deemed native or invasive like plants and other organisms? Most of the mushrooms found in within North America seem to be found all throughout it and not particular regional like most organisms.

1)      Mushroom - ????

• Growing out of the ground with only 2 smaller ones nearby but not connected
• Found in a moist shaded area near a small fallen log
• Not even 2 inches tall
• Cap is slightly convex but still very flat
• White stock, gills, and cap but center is soft brown with a brighter splotchy white around it and the gills are seen through the cap on the edges
• No skirt
• Gills connect to stock in an adnate with a decurrent tooth manor but also features short gills

2)      Sword Fern - Polystichum munitum

• All of the fronds came from the center of the plant (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 421)
• Neat pointed leaves alternating on either side of the stock (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 421)
• Two rows of sori on the back of the leaves (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 421)

3)      Western Red Cedar - Thuja plicata

• Leaves are scaled (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 42)
• Leaves cover the twigs (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 42)
• Reddish rather smooth bark (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 42)

• Originally I thought this might have been a cyprus of some sort due to the scaled leaves while still being a rather short and squat tree with a very smooth bark, but it seems to just be a very young cedar.

Cody -

I had been to Pine Ridge park last November to film a short film for Hum 105. I learned that fungi promoted plant to land growth over 460 million years ago. A question I had is how many native fungi to the Olympic national forest we have.

1)      Lichen

The Lichen was identified as Ragbag (Platismatia glauca) using these characteristics:

• Pale blueish-green color (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 494)
• Strongly Ruffled Edges (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains, 329)

2)      Tree

The Tree identified is a Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) using these characteristics:

• Needles short, flat, blunt, widely and irregularly spaced (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 30)
• Drooping branch tips and treetop (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains, 58)

3)      Shrub

This Shrub was identified as Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium) using these characteristics:

• Non-toothed oval leaves (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 57)
• Very strong bright green branches (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 57)