Trees With Large Fruits in the Fall

As the leaves fall, it is easy to see the large fruits of several trees in our area that have reportedly lost their primary seed dispersers.  When you look at fruits from hedge-apple, honey-locust and Kentucky coffee tree, you might wonder what animal is big enough to eat these.

Lots of hedge-apple fruits on the ground

Lots of hedge-apple fruits on the ground

 

Hedge-apple fruit the size of a large grapefruit.  Kids like the name monkey brains.

Hedge-apple fruit the size of a large grapefruit. Kids like the name monkey brains

Osage-orange, aka hedge-apple on the campus tree walk behind Gallahue Hall at Butler.  See large green fruit on the top of the tree

Osage-orange, aka hedge-apple on the campus tree walk behind Gallahue Hall at Butler. See large green fruit on the top of the tree

It is thought mastodons and other large, now extinct mammals ate these fruits, helping to spread the trees around.  The three trees also are somewhat unusual in having separate male and female trees.

Legume fruits of Honey locust with a quarter and the tip of my shoe for scale

Legume fruits of Honey locust with a quarter and the tip of my shoe for scale

Honey locust tree in the Clowes Hall lot at Butler University with large fruits

Honey locust tree in the Clowes Hall lot at Butler University with large fruits

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Bright Red Shrubs

Pretty but invasive Burning-bush

Pretty but invasive Burning-bush

This has been a great year for some fall color.  Burning bush (Euonymous alatus) has been particularly spectacular.  I’ve seen some beautiful hedges as I’ve driven around town.  One near the Governor’s Mansion caught my eye this week.  Warning though – these shrubs are non-native and can be invasive.  There are many other better choices.  See my 10/18/12 post for more on good, colorful native shrubs for fall color.

Striking red shrub

Striking red shrub

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Ghoulish puffballs now in local woods

Although at little out of the plant realm, fall is puffball mushroom season.  While fall botanizing in open woods, I often come across these startling-look fungi.  At first glance they look just like human skulls stuck in the ground.  When they first come up they are bright white, then they fade to a very skull-like yellow-brownish color.  As they age and dry, the turn papery on the outside and, when bumped, puff out a cloud of spores.

Skull-like puffball

Skull-like puffball

Puffballs are reportedly edible (warning: I never advocate eating anything from the wild unless you are an expert at identification) and I have tried them (my husband, Dr. Tom Dolan is a mycologist and identifies mushrooms for the Indiana Poison Control Center).  Puffballs are the consistency of tofu or mushy Styrofoam, but suck up flavor from sautéed butter.

The puffball is the “fruit” of a mushroom that spends most of its time as tiny filaments called mycelia that spread through the soil making a living as decomposers.  When conditions are right, they produce puffballs as fruiting bodies to disperse their spores.

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New Rain Gardens in Clowes Hall Parking Lot

As part of the construction of Butler University’s new Schrott Center for the Arts, the Clowes Hall parking lot was reconfigured.

Rain garden in Clowes Hall parking lot.

Rain garden in Clowes Hall parking lot.

The new building followed building standards for LEED certification.  Among other “green features”, the parking lot has permeable pavement that allow rain to drain through it, along with rain gardens full of moisture-loving plant to further help with keeping storm water in place.

The rain gardens are in nice bloom now, with red spikes of Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

Cardinal flower in bloom.

Cardinal flower in bloom.

and nice contrasting inflorescences of blue mistflowers (Eupatorium coelestinum).

Mistflowers in bloom.

Mistflowers in bloom.

New parking lot at Butler University with pervious pavement.  Rain collects on the impervious sections.

New parking lot at Butler University with pervious pavement. Rain collects on the impervious sections.

 

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