#forestforensics — Public Fediverse posts

Today's forest forensics: what is the thing in the image below? Note: it's fuzzy.

UPDATE: the answer revealed! it is a sprouting stalk of a clump of giant bamboo.

#plants #ForestForensics #hawaii

Normally I do "forest forensics", but today we have "field forensics": can you guess the type of animal that made this trail?

EDIT: the answer revealed: cows! This is a very large fenced in area and the cows have made trails all around it. Moo! 🐄

#ForestForensics #FieldForensics #nature #quiz

Forest forensics quiz time!: can you spot the invasive, earthworm-hunting, flatworm bipalium kewense (arrowhead flatworm) amongst the other stuff on the ground in the pic below?

Your earthworms are begging you to eliminate these jerks who can regrow a whole new guy from even a small piece of this one! But you can't put it in the salt watery slug jar if you can't see it. (Hint: they like to come out on moist mornings after it's been dry for a while...mornings just like this one!)

#ForestForensics #hawaii #InvasiveSpecies #animals #garden #gardening #ecology #science #camouflage

Trust the fungus! This is one of those weenie fungus (phallus multicolor, I think) in egg form. I found it while clearing out a patch of overgrown garden.

It's oddly heavy, dense, and squishy (I only gently squeezed it). I like its little rootling thingies at the bottom.

I've seen the fruit of these as they come out of the "egg" and it's equally weird as the egg and the fruit. Big alien vibes.

I didn't know the "egg" could be totally disconnected under the soil. This one just came right out. After the photo, I put it in the soil in a different shady areas.

#fungus #fungi #hawaii #ForestForensics #nature #hawaii

Tiny see-through friends found at the shore!

The second friend had started to become silvery, but only made it halfway - the back half was still see-thru!

There were big rains last week in that area, so I guess that's when these friends got washed up.

Pic 3 shows the shoreline area where I encountered them.

#fish #nature #hawaii #ocean #ForestForensics

#ForestForensics

As I was pulling weeds the other day, I pulled up this rhizome that past-me had planted.

Can you tell what it is from the images below?

____________________________
ANSWER:

It is turmeric (olena, as it's called locally)!

The rhizome pieces are smaller than ginger, and break off much easier. In pic 2, you can see the bright orange/yellow interior. I also smelled the rhizome and it smells like other turmeric I've grown. The rhizomes of zingiberaceae often have unique and specific smells that can aid in identification, so I always try to smell them. My favorite so far is cardamom rhizome, which is just heavenly 🥰 (galangal is my least favorite. Sorry galangal-lovers! 😅)

Pic 3 shows a new shoot, but it's not big enough to aid in identification between say, an edible ginger and cardamom (at least not to me). When the shoots & leaves are larger, it's pretty easy to tell the difference.

#zingiberaceae #plants #gardening #tropical #ginger #turmeric #hawaii #nature

Plants that live up in trees (like tree orchids or staghorn ferns) spend their lives moving up and down the vertical space of the canopy.

"Down" makes sense: you're an orchid growing on a branch up in a tree, and the branch breaks and falls. You have now moved down. But it's likely that there are other things suspended in a tangle below that, so you don't go all the way down (see pic 3).

"Up" also happens! The most basic way is that the tree you're on grows, and so you rise with it.

But you can also be picked up by a curious primate (me) and put back up in a tree (because the primate has seen your type of plant in trees, so it knows you prefer it up high)(See pic 1).

Or, if you're on a branch that's broken and suspended in the canopy, maybe a tree falls and lifts your entire branch up. Now you're back up!

"Up" also happens as orchids put out new bulbs that spread up a tree trunk (for example, see pic 2).

And "up" also happens intergenerationally. Plants like orchids have tiny seeds that can flow up on the wind (see pic 4, showing the seeds in just one seedpod of a spathoglottis plicata orchid). If they land higher in the canopy in the crook of a tree (best if the crook has accumulated some fallen leaves and moss), they can start life higher in the canopy than their parent.

Anyway, the best conditions for a tree-based plant are not necessarily at the highest or the lowest point - it's all about the overall right conditions of shade, sun, access to rain, protection from wind, safety from interfering animals, and the right amount of air for their roots.

#plants #nature #rainforest #ferns #orchids #hawaii #ForestForensics #trees #canopy #forest #ecology #ecosystem

Today's #ForestForensics

Pic 1: a tiny nest that fell out of an 'ohi'a tree (I think). I've seen this kind of nest before, but I don't know who builds it. We have many types of songbirds, so I don't know.

Pic 2: shed gecko tail skin. Given that the main type of gecko we have is the gold dust day gecko, probably one of them. If you look on the right side of the tail, you can see that this gecko had a regrown tail (there's a sharp vertical line about 2/3 of the way along the tail, on the right side. and the color to the right of that line is slightly different too).

The fascination never ends on the forest floor!

#birds #nest #hawaii #nature #NatureLiteracy #environment #gecko

#ForestForensics #plants #pests #tropical #TropicalAg @plants
i found this part of a leaf on my trail and immediately thought "uh oh!".

why did i think that? what did i see that made me concerned?

hint: it's part of a banana leaf

@bomengidsnl i guessed that it was some kind of citrus, but i wasn't sure which one. very cool!

btw, i use the tag #ForestForensics to post various nature ID quizzes. you're welcome to use it as well :}

#ForestForensics #plants @plants

can you guess this vine with heart-shaped leaves?

hints:

* it has tiny, sharp thorns along the stem.
* it is not sweet potato.
* it is growing in a tropical wet climate on hawai'i island

#vines #VineGang

#ForestForensics #plants #gardening @plants

can you tell what kind of sproutling is shown in the photo below?

it took me a while, but i think i figured it out. please post your guesses in the replies ^-^

hint: this is in a tropical wet climate at a pretty low elevation (~150m).

#ForestForensics: sometimes one's kitchen junk box grows a vine (apparently)!

at first i didn't notice it (sneaky plant!), then i was mystified, & then i discovered the air potato i must've set down among the rubber bands b/c i couldn't decide whether to plant it (b/c i don't remember if this is the edible kind, & i don't want to plant the invasive non-edible variety.)

air potato is dioscorea bulbifera.

compare edible/non-edible types here: https://www.fdacs.gov/content/download/76447/file/Air%20Potato%20Quick%20Identification%20Guide.pdf

#plants @plants #tropicalAg

#ForestForensics: who made this unusual nest that's mostly mud, but on the outside has some grass? i found it below a tree in wheeling, il. this nest had some weight to it! i can see why it fell...

#birds #nests

@Brendanjones follow meeeeee. i live off-grid on hawai'i island & post many fun #ForestForensics, ecology, and other fun things from close to the land. scientists need the perspectives of us guys who live closer to the land! :}

#ForestForensics: i noticed these interesting shoreline plants growing on the sides of the des plaines river in wheeling, il. the river is having a very dry summer but these guys seem to be doing ok. anyone know what they are?

#plants #ecology #PlantID @plants #nature #environment #midwest

#ForestForensics: the answer revealed! actually, it sort of revealed itself today: it is a Phallus multicolor!

the phallus multicolor forms a hairy ball first, which then cracks like an egg, revealing a slimy egg inside, then it'll make a phallus wearing a little skirt. so yea. she does it all! ;)

#ecology #mycology #mushtodon #fungus #mushrooms #tropical #hawaii #nature #forest

@bomengidsnl i don't know this tree, but i've been posting plant-type ID challenges under the #ForestForensics tag, which you're welcome to use as well :}

#ForestForensics: the answer revealed: this plant is kava (Piper methysticum), an important canoe plant grown all over the pacific. learn more here: https://www.canoeplants.com/awa.html

#ForestForensics: do you know what this furry white ball thing is? (i do! and the answer will be revealed sooooon.)

#ForestForensics: do you know this #plant? it's growing in a tropical wet climate on hawai'i island. (hawai'i people & other people in the pacific probably know.)

@plants #ecology #tropical #TropicalAg #garden #gardening #plants

2 scrumptious #jackfruit, growing right at grabbing height, coming along nicely but not yet ready for harvest.

these are growing behind a fence, right by the road, in my neighborhood. i did a cartoon "vree!" stop on my bike when i spotted them.

how many times have i passed this tree & never even noticed that it was a jackfruit?

#ForestForensics #PayAttention #plants @plants #tropical #TropicalAg #FoodForest #nature #ecology #food #artocarpus

when the rats are desperate...

#homestead #farm #rural #rats #ForestForensics

roots grown into the shape of a can of beer that someone tossed onto the side of the road. recent mowing exposed the trash and i opened the can and found this.

#ForestForensics #forest #plants @plants

does anyone know who might have laid these eggs i found in a spool of wire? each one was the size of a pea. my guess is maybe giant snail?

#hawai'i #garden #ForestForensics

I am just a guy who walks in the woods, knowing next to nothing about #ForestForensics beyond a couple of YouTube videos with those keywords, but occasionally I look stuff up. This tall stump is covered with what may be poison ivy vines, lichen & fungus, but what are the pieces that look like eggshells? Do woodpeckers or some other birds nest in this kind of vertical gap in a stump and leave behind shells? #RockyKnobRecArea #BlueRidgeParkway

yesterday i biked through a part of my neighborhood i hadn't been in before. the 'ohi'a trees over there were huge - avg. height ~2x the avg. height of the trees at our place. i biked through a patch maybe 5-10 lots long where nearly all the tall 'ohi'as were dead. dead-dead. dead-for-a-while-already. i was getting v. emotional, but then just a few lots later, nearly all the tall 'ohi'as were alive! the trees were about the same avg. height, house density and house age was pretty similar between the two areas, and all of a sudden, all the trees are bushy and green! it made me start wondering how rapid 'ohi'a death (http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2016/10/28/uh-researchers-making-advances-in-battle-against-rapid-ohia-death/) spreads. what kinds of actions in the past had led to a huge patch of dead 'ohi'as right next to another patch that looks fine? #ForestForensics

i didn't get any photos in the "dead zone" but i did get photos in the "live zone". i was biking roughly north=>south, and the "live zone" was to the immediate south of the "dead zone".

i'm not sure how different the 'ohi'as were farther north of the dead zone beause i hadn't really been paying attention, but i imagine it's a mix of live/dead (like it is in our area).

i see 'ohi'as all around me dying of ROD, all the time. i can see one right now, as i'm typing this. a big, beautiful tree that was alive a couple years ago - providing shade, pumping out oxygen, providing a home to many other creatures, and just generally building the forest.

in our area, 'ohi'a are the first tree to grow on new lava. as they create roots and shed leaves, they help build up the forest floor. in many ways, i live in the forest they built. they are the ones who really got the process going. they're much older than i am, much bigger and more powerful (i can't turn sunshine into my own food, but these guys can!), they make the air i breathe. all they do is enhance their surroundings, seriously! and even the biggest, oldest trees die from it. it makes me worried for the still-alive trees clumped up around it.

'ohi'a grow really slowly too (of course), so "replacing" this dying canopy is no small undertaking! when you are focused on helping individual trees grow, you have to think on *their* timescales - how long it takes them to get big, spread, reproduce, etc. but i love thinking on their timeframes, i really do. it reminds me to forget all the noisy BS that happens in life and to remember the living friends all around us: the ones who make our soil, make our oxygen, provide our fruits, all while *turning sunlight C02 and water* into life. pretty magical!

so thank you, 'ohi'as, for creating the forest in whose shade and protection i now sit. i wish i could do more to help you survive this awful rapid 'ohi'a death!

#ROD #'ohi'a #hawai'i #ecology #forest #tropical #island #biodiversity

plants have many strategies for reaching the sun. here in our tropical environment, competition can be quite strong since many different kinds of plants are all reaching.

one of the strategies plants use is "cover everything." join me in the garden as i show you the "cover everything" strategy in action.

"How Plants Climb (part 2): Cover Everything"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjhe0lqAoeM

#ForestForensics #plants #garden #gardening

@plants

@rrix @plants i also sometimes post #FunGardenFinds because i'm always discovering new things in the garden.

where i live, #FunGardenFinds and #ForestForensics is often the same thing, but i realize for others they may be separate! 😺

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvuESur5OMk

@rrix @plants if you find more #ForestForensics videos, please share!

i haven't really found them, so i make my own ^-^

https://www.youtube.com/@marinakukso/search?query=forest%20forensics

(but i can only make a few - i'd love to learn from others! i wish more ppl made forest forensics videos!! (garden forensics counts as well!) 🤩