Rare Caterpillar Attends 83rd Ohio Plant Diagnostic Workshop

Thanks to the sharp eyes of Erik 'The Caterpillar Hunter' Draper (OSU Extension, Geauga County), this very rare caterpillar made an appearance at yesterday's 83rd Ohio Plant Diagnostic Workshop.  The Paddle Caterpillar is the larval form of the Funerary Dagger Moth (Acronicta funeralis, family Noctuidae).
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Joe Boggs

Mushrooms in the Yard: To Eat or Not to Eat has been a Common Question

With the return of more regular rains in some areas of Ohio, mushroom production in lawns seems to be going gang busters.  Some view these mushrooms as a mere nuisance, some are freaked out by their presence, and some want to make a meal out of them.  STOP!  One must have an absolute, positive identification before dining on these "free" mushrooms.

 

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Curtis E. Young

Ode to Joy: A Walk in the Park and German VIllage

  The first image of a caladium and coleus window box above is from a walk I took a few weeks ago with the Ohio Nursery Landscape Association’s Executive Director Frits Risor through German Village and Schiller Park there, and then later in the day checking out the crape myrtles planted in landscapes a little further north near ONLA’s World Headquarters in Westerville. A few other items we saw include:

 

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Jim Chatfield

Cedar Rust Fungi Aecial Tubes Now Evident

  For the last month the fungal tubes of the “aecial” stage of several cedar rust fungi, namely cedar-apple rust (Gymonsporangium juniper-virginianae) and cedar-hawthorn rust (G. globosum) have been evident on leaf undersides of hawthorns, as seen in the accompanying picture.

  These rust fungi spend about a year and half on certain junipers (in the Cupressaceae family) before microscopic spores of the fungus oozing from galls on the juniper blow in the spring to certain genera in the Rosaceae family such as hawthorns and apples and crabapples.

 

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Jim Chatfield

Jack-o'-Lantern Mushrooms

  I was driving home the other day, and on a bank, under an oak tree, there were some electrifyingly-orange mushrooms cascading down a small slope. BYGL-alert screamed out at me, so let’s take a look. Delightful as they looked to the eye, these would seem to be jack-o’-lantern mushrooms, probably Omphalotus olearius. This mushroom may cause serious gastric distress to those who partake. It is a reminder that you really need to get a positive identification before taking a chance on nature gone wild.

 

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Jim Chatfield
Curtis E. Young

Mantids are Lurking

This is the time of the year when it seems that praying mantids are everywhere.  I collected this mantid today from our window screen.  However, the perception that there are more mantids at this time of the season is based on the size of the mantids, not total numbers.
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Joe Boggs