Tag: fungus
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Unwrapping the Box: Seeds, Spores, and the Forest Inside the Turtle
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., May 26, 2026 In the last post, we began a new part of this Eastern Box Turtle series by considering the turtle’s gifts. In Western science, many of these gifts are described as ecosystem services, or the useful work a species does in a larger ecological system. That language can…
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Fruiting Fungi & Woody Plants in the Piedmont
When we explore the Piedmont woods, our attention sometimes shifts away from the showy flowers, stately trees, and singing birds to the diminutive mushrooms around us. Many of these mushrooms have key and important associations with the woody plants that so often structure our definitions of ecosystems. Fungi & Oaks. In the Piedmont, there are…
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Johnston Mill Nature Preserve (Orange County, North Carolina)
Overview: Located in Orange County, near the Duke Forest, Johnston Mill Nature Preserve is a Triangle Land Conservancy property that offers a quick getaway from the urban grind of Durham and Chapel Hill. The preserve consists of two trails—Robin’s Trail (1.5 miles one-way) and the Bluff Trail (1 mile loop) on the TLC map—though they…
Sense of Place 