What Are Plants Made Of?

New Comics

If you celebrate Christmas, Yule, or another holiday that involves decorating a conifer tree, consider how much carbon may be trapped in it (assuming you have a real tree and not an artificial one.) Unless your tree has an intact root ball and will be planted after the holiday, it’s going to begin to decay, thereby releasing that carbon back into the air and soil. the same goes for any houseplants you have, plants in your garden, yard or lawn. Even live plants in aquariums follow the same carbon cycle!

Also, I decided to try and find another native slug besides the banana slug, which has been in multiple comics now, including its very own one-panel feature. I’ve never actually seen a taildropper, yellow bordered or otherwise, but I’m going to keep my eyes open! Unfortunately pretty much every other slug I’ve met in the Northwest besides banana slugs has been a European invasive, but here’s hoping that the habitat restoration I’ve been helping with will make a difference.

Species portrayed: coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), western gull (Larus occidentalis), coyote (Canis latrans), Atlantic beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata), gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), bobcat (Lynx rufus), white clover (Trifolium repens), Pacific golden chanterelle (Cantharellus formosus), yellow bordered taildropper (Prophysaon foliolatum), windswept moss (Dicranum scoparium), red alder (Alnus rubra), yellow wood violet (Viola biflora)

Literal Mushroom Names!!

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This fall has been really good for mushrooms here in the Northwest. Along with my usual haul of chanterelles and boletes, I also found a new spot to look for oysters, and got some shaggy manes as well. Still no luck in finding chicken of the woods that’s either young enough to eat, or not just a remnant of what someone else already picked and took away. But I will prevail!

Anyway, I was inspired to create this comic while listening to a talk on fungi identification by Quinn Colling at the Oregon Master Naturalist convention back in October. I thought it would be fun to play on the common names of some of my favorite fungi, and I hope you enjoy the visual puns!

Species portrayed: chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sp.), hedgehog mushroom (Hydnum repandum), shaggy mane (Coprinus comatus), black trumpet (Craterellus cornucopioides), fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), king bolete (Boletus edulis)

New Comic!

New Comics

Lots of new comics, actually, if you haven’t been following things here at the website or on social media. I just now realized, nearly half a year after launching this site, that subscribing only gets you the blog posts (of which there haven’t been any), not the actual comics. Oops. So I’ll post notifications of new comics here on the blog, too, so you’re not missing out on any of the new content!

The new comic is at http://www.whatyouneedtoknowaboutnature.com/comic/not-so-cute-animal-videos/ and you can read all the archives at http://www.wyntkan.com. Enjoy 🙂