Wild Wednesday ~ November Color

I had Wednesday off last week, for Veteran's Day, and I went out again in search of my missing mystery tree. I tromped all over a different part of our woods, but still did not find one. I did, however, see several interesting fungi, including this one that had kind of spiny things instead of gills.

And this pretty green and red shelf polypore (I really need to get a fungus field guide!!).

I also found this little Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), which I didn't know we had growing out there. Supposedly it's named Christmas fern because it stays green through the winter, but I think it's really because the fronds look like children's drawings of Christmas trees.

On Saturday we went hiking with visiting guests and saw some more November color, like this orange jelly fungus.

And a bright red partridge berry (Mitchell reopens).

And finally I found my tree: witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana).

C spotted it first, one of several growing together in an area. I think I would have just passed it by because it's not what I expected. Even though I've seen native witchazel growing in the wild, and know intellectually it's a smallish shrub and pretty low-profile, I had in mind those two beautiful cultivated trees (which, incidentally, are still blooming) and I was looking for something equally tall and bright and grand. These little wild guys had already shed their flowers, which look like leggy yellow spiders. So now I have a new mission: find witchhazel in my woods, looking for something smaller, and subtler, and altogether completely different from what I was looking for before.

What's wild in your neck of the woods?

P.S. I'm taking a self-imposed blogging break over the next week or two, while I deal, once and for all, with the storage issues on my computer that I've just been bandaging along for the last year. I'll see you on the flip side!