MICROBE WALK
Many attendees spent part of the afternoon on a "microbe walk". We walked up the trail (the flat part) towards Castle Rock with our eyes on the ground looking for macroscopic signs of microscopic life. We were led by Betsey Dexter-Dyer (author of "A Field Guide to Bacteria") and Doug Eveleigh (my former microbial ecology teacher) and everyone chipped in with their expertise. The nature of the environment meant that we saw a lot of lichens, fungi and slime-molds and less bacterial signs. We did come across some myxobacteria and some nice rhizobial nodules though. The most fun was seeing other hikers' reactions when they came across a dozen people huddled around a rotting log and getting excited to find some "good slimy stuff over here". Sometimes you just have to let your inner nerd out and let him take a walk in the woods.
Betsey Dexter-Dyer and Doug Eveleigh
Some slime mold fruiting bodies (the round things) on a decaying stump.
Closer examination of some specimens.
Lots of lichens. Some may have been cyanobacterial.
Doug explains how to recognize a boletus. Ruth Gyure holds up some fungi.
A mini peat bog on the side of the hill.
More slime-mold fruiting bodies.
A variety of the fungi and slime-molds from one rotting log. Annie Rowe and Doug show off a boletus that found its way onto the dinner menu.
ON THE SCOPE
One of the root nodules (about 2 mm wide) on a wild vetch.
Nodule sliced open to reveal the leghemoglobin.
One of the unidentified slime-molds (probably Ceratiomyxa fruiticlosa).
