We’ve looked at needle-leaved and broadleaved trees this winter but standing and fallen dead trees make enormous contributions to PEI’s forests, too!     Trees die naturally from a variety of causes: old age, disease, insects, fire, weather damage, or environmental stress, among others. The death of a tree is part of the life of a forest and is necessary for the survival of everything from plants, lichens, and fungi to insects, birds, and mammals.    Insects such as Bark Beet

Welcome to the final Mushroom Monday of 2025. We’ll end with a large and easy-to-identify species that hasn’t been recorded all that often on the Island: Northern Tooth ( Climacodon septentrionalis ).   As we’ve seen throughout this series, mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes, and can share physical traits without being closely related. The spore-bearing surface of Northern Tooth has spine-like ‘teeth’ rather than gills, folds, or pores (inset photo). Despite this, it is m

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, your weekly look at some of PEI’s fascinating fungi. This week we have the interesting, toxic, and...

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, your weekly look at PEI’s fascinating fungi. We’re staying with the Polypore group for another week to...

Most people have never seen PEI’s rarest native tree in person, and some have never even heard of it. Meet the beautiful Ironwood (...

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, your weekly look at some of PEI’s fascinating fungi. The dry weather has made it a poor year for most...

On PEI, September means a few things: the end of summer, the start of school, and the return of Mushroom Mondays! Over the past couple of...

This spring, I’m exploring some of PEI’s early-fruiting fungi, and today’s example sounds more like a pastry than a mushroom. Meet Amber...

No matter where I go on PEI this winter – town or country – the most common tracks I see are from Snowshoe Hare. It’s been like this for...

Welcome back to Ask a Naturalist, your own personal Google for information on all things natural on PEI. Winter is great time to spot...

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, a weekly look at some of PEI’s easy-to-identify fungi. Today it’s the beautiful Purple-gilled Laccaria...

I’m always on the lookout for new-to-me PEI fungi and so was pleased to spot a choice edible species during one of my recent plant...

As a botanist, I don’t know my mushrooms well (fungi are more closely related to animals than they are to plants). But I am working to...