I think this is the nightshade vine that Rita mentioned, Solanum dulcamara. I knew I had seen it somewhere, and went looking for it. I found it in the valley behind my house, twining through the remains of a fallen cedar tree. Something had eaten holes in the vine's leaves, but not touched the berries.

Sure does look like what grows here.

Today I noticed this bush with red berries growing on a steeply sloping bank of the stream. It has 3-lobed leaves with grooved stalks, and the leaf-stalks have little green bumps on them that I first mistook for aphids, but on closer inspection I found they are part of the plant. I think this shrub must be Viburnum trilobum (high bush cranberry), which my tree ID book says has club-shaped glands on the leaf-stalks, whereas the very similar Viburnum opulus var. opulus (European high bush cranberry) has saucer-shaped glands.

Armed with my new ID knowledge, I went to look at the "native Viburnum trilobum" that I bought from a nursery several years ago and planted in my garden. It has no bumps on the leaf-stalks, just saucer-shaped marks. I was duped!

No fruits today, just the fruiting bodies of Multiclavula mucida. These little pin-like fungi are forming a traffic hazard for a slug that seems to be feeding on green algae. I hope this isn't too slimy a composition for some!

Good shot of that slimy slug and the fungi, June!

I can't find any more fruits that wildlife eat at the moment, so I'm turning to fruits that attach themselves to wildlife. These little bristly burrs are the fruits of the Agrimony plant, which has small, yellow flowers. The burrs hang around at shin height and wait for a pant-leg or animal fur to brush against them, then away they go!

Continuing the theme of fruits that attach themselves to critters, these burrs belong to the aptly-named Burdock.

Pokeweed...I do cut some down on occasion, but there's still plenty!

That's a great pokeweed crop, Linda! I wish it grew in this area, but I haven't seen one plant in the 10 years I've been living here.

I tried to take a pic of some berries on Magnolia grandiflora Tuesday but they were up too high to show up in the pics.

Beautyberry has been shown a couple times already, but I can't get enough of it. Makes a great scaffold for wild Ipomoeas.


This reminds me that occasionally I very passively wonder if any critters have an interest in the cute little ornamental peppers. There's a couple of these tiny plants in the front yard & they always look exactly the same but I'm sure after 5-6 months those can't be the exact same peppers that were on it when I got it. The older fruits must be dropping off.. or being eaten? Anyone paying more attention to tiny ornamental pepper plants?

Tiffany, I doubt that any critter would eat ornamental peppers, except maybe birds might peck into them for the seeds. I think the chemical in peppers that makes them taste "hot" would deter any mammal from eating them. Nice beautyberry pic!

Snowberries

Never seen snowberries before.

I still haven't found any new berries, but there are lots of "fruiting bodies'" of fungi in the woods now. This one I have positively identified as Blushing Waxcap (Hygrophorus pudinorus). It is pinky-beige flesh-colored with a disturbingly clammy, waxy feel, and grows on the forest floor. Older ones are riddled with holes, so something likes to eat them - probably slimy slugs.

Nice mushrooms! I keep hoping the morels will come back! I just discovered what they are the last year we actually got enough rain to get them up, then the drought returned, so no morels.

Those morels are elusive! I saw some here once, and always look for them, but have never seen them again. Raccoons or deer probably nab them pretty quick.

I think squirrels like them too June, I know they dry other type mushrooms for the winter.

These little brown thingies are Pear-shaped Puffballs (Lycoperdon pyriforme) fruiting on a well-rotted stump. My mushroom ID book tells me that they are edible, but presumably when young and tender, not when they have turned brown and papery like this. Has anyone tried them?