The end of autumn

I was in Berkeley yesterday for the 43rd Annual Fungus Fair at the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.

This was my favorite fungus, Clathrus ruber. The egg-like enclosure, lined with a gelatinous anti-freeze material, cracks open to reveal the rank, red brain.



Deadly Amanita also emerge from an egg-like enclosure, called a "universal veil". I am told the universal veil is a characteristic of the amanitas. It remains underground and shrivels into a volva once the mushroom pops up.





I loved these sulfurous yellow mushrooms, Hypholoma fasciculare. Bitter and poisonous, they are not for eating.



There were several tables of specimens, all collected in the last day or two following recent heavy rains.



Northern California is quite soaked, as three (four?) big storms have moved through one after the other in the last few days. I think this is the last of it today.



You can barely see San Francisco through the weather.



The Golden Gate Bridge is a thin horizontal in the distance.



I thought I'd go home after lingering at the Fair for an hour or two, but decided to give the Botanical Garden a quick visit since I was there and my membership is current. I'm glad I did. It was a riot of color.







It must have been lovely (erm, lovelier still) before the recent rains brought down the leaves.































Somewhere near here the scent of Cercidyphyllum japonicum stopped me in my tracks, like toasted marshmallows or cotton candy this time of year, when the leaves senesce.

Even the rose garden was full of interest















Another one that stopped in my tracks: Myrtus communis. All chartreuse foliage and blue berries. Annie in Austin informs me this is a popular one in Austin, TX. Well, you don't see it much around here.





I'd forgotten this was here, an art installation using glass tubes recovered by artists from the Solyndra debacle (National Review readers hate it). Step inside the dark room...



Full of natural light carried in by glass.





Different effects depending on where you stand.



Here is a picture using the camera flash so you can see what you're looking at.

UC Botanical Garden

I had business in the East Bay today and I used the opportunity to visit the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley. It was exceptionally beautiful.
















All of the above was all just the entry garden. I often feel like I should make my own garden more like the entry gardens here, or at Strybing. They're two of the finest ornamental gardens I've ever seen. And I could have this in my yard too--it would not be hard and it wouldn't take long. Instead, I've gone my own way. We all go our own way.

Now let's go see the rest of the garden.









Anemopsis californica. I've had this plant in my garden for years but it's never flowered because it's growing in too much shade. If I move it to sun, then it needs water. It occurs to me that I should put it by the bird bath. Most every day I slosh out the dirty bird bath water and refill it. I could be, ahem, killing two birds with one stone.

























It was a thrill to see Araucaria araucana with cones. I've never seen them before.



The Victorians were fascinated by this tree and grew it widely. Tort damages arising from the dangerous, dropping cones put an end to that. Today this tree is planted more cautiously, and much more rarely.