esummerbell's Favorites

Hypophyllous on Modiola caroliniana. Not easily confusable due to the host; microscopy matches literature anyway. Both teliospores and basidiospores highly variable in size and shape.

Measurements
Teliospores
37–80 × 10–21 μm
Teliospores in literature
45–87.5 × 8.0–17.0 µm (Albu et al. 2019)
31–81(–95) × 10.5–20 (–25) µm (Aime & Abbasi 2018)
Basidiospores
9–12.5(–17.8) × 6–9(–10.5) μm

Images
All slides in LPCB, scale bar 100 μm for image 1, 50 μm for image 3, 10 μm otherwise.
1: Cross section of telium, teliospores visible on lower surface
2: Epiphyllous habit
3: Various teliospores
4: Sterigmata, two with attached basidiospores
5: Spent sterigmata
6: Promycelia/metabasidia in various stages of growth from teliospores
7: Basidiospores
8: Notched teliospore apex
9: Hypophyllous spermogonium
10: Early or broken teliospore germ tube
11: Additional habit

Wild plant. A single clump in a floodplain that is thoroughly infested with lesser celandine :-( I would say this goes into the A. maculatum bin because 1. dark spots on leaves, and 2. leaves are emerging in spring (it doesn't look like there are any over-wintered leaves, these leaves don't look full-sized). Some of the leaves have pale veins, perhaps that indicates some hybridization with A. italicum, I don't know. The landscape-level shot shows this clump (yellow arrow) in the larger context. This observation has also been reported in EDDMapS.

Photo 1) Galls found on underside of a White Oak leaflet, all growing on or slightly aside of a lateral vein. Subglobular and glabrous. The ensuing discussion will focus on just the larger of the two. 2) Closeup showing fine reddish spots against tan background, giving a pinkish appearance from afar. Max diameter 4.5 mm. 3) I took a cross-sectional slice off the top of the gall, exposing a fleshy, watery interior similar to a plum. In doing so, the gall became separated from the leaf vein. 4) After more slices I finally reached a sole chamber with a whitish, ribbed larva inside. It remained in a tucked position the entire time that I observed it, so it was difficult to get a good measurement. I estimated the larva to be about 1 mm wide and about 2 mm long, a rather plump specimen. Under a microscope I could not see any legs, but I did make out a bizarre fish-like mouth with two mandibles (?) that were dark, curved, and sharp-pointed. Wish I could have got photos of the mouth. It was creepy yet awesome looking!

This leaf came from the same tree as https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/101723025.

Photo 1: dorsal view on left, ventral view on right
Photo 20 (3rd from last): E. maculata (normal) on left, E. humistrata on right
Photo 21 (2nd from last): E. humistrata on left, E. maculata (late season stress) on right

a new naturalised plant. wild seedlings over a large area there is loads of it wild here, obviously spreading extremely fast. of course the origionals must have been planted somewhere close by but these are very obviously totally wild now.

TODO request samples. Rang last week he texted back "the week after next"

Blockhouse Bay Beach Reserve, Blockhouse Bay, Auckland 0600. Same plants as observed by me previously, now with flower buds and freshly open flowers.

Purposes of this observation:
(1) to confirm the continued presence of these plants in 2021; and
(2) to illustrate the flower buds and freshly open flowers of these plants.

Hello! While shopping for plants I spotted a large lizard who seemed out of place. I notified store employees but they said this lizard was unfamiliar. I followed her around for quite a while observing her behavior. She seemed to be healthy, active, and eating (bugs?) as she trotted around the area. She’s fast! Before I knew it she was gone. I’m sure she was still there but I could not find her, being surrounded by plants. She was maybe 12" long and like 1.5" wide. Her head had what appeared to be turquoise markings. After returning home I googled and found Travis Laduc with UT Austin who pointed me in your direction to share my sighting. (Thanks, Travis!) I’m sorry that my pictures/video are not very clear but this was so unexpected. I’m happy to answer any questions. I have a video but can’t figure out how to upload here.