OHC - Moss, Lichen & Mushrooms

My son and I took a walk in a local game refuge to look for any moss, lichen, and mushrooms.  There were still large areas with snow on the ground, but around the bases of trees and along the stream banks, the sun had done its work.

The thing that amazed me about this month's challenge was the incredible diversity of species.

Here are some of our mosses (although, I think some are not true mosses, but club mosses).

It's like everyone is looking in one direction.

These look like mini ferns.

These remind me of sea anemones.

Now onto our mushroom collection.  Some of these are absolutely beautiful.

 

 

I love these.  They formed on a stump left by a beaver.

 

Some kind of slime mold.

I think this might be called Ceramic parchment.

Since it is on a coniferous tree, I am going to say it is Orange Jelly.

Some kind of puffball.  I was surprised to find it in early March.
I thought it was a fall fungus.

We also found some lichen, but the pictures were not that great.

This month, we really just spent our time looking for as many different species as we could find.  It is funny how once you start looking, you see them everywhere.  Our next step will be to work on identification.