Explore the miniature world of the outdoors

The big and small of nature

Recently I shared how one the largest animals on our planet washed up near my house. Well the other day I went on a short trail walk with my daughter in a mountain valley and experienced the smaller side of nature.

As a long time photographer, Steemit has encouraged me to bring my camera along more often. Another fun part of getting outdoors is the game of Geocaching: using GPS in a world-wide “treasure hunt”. Some can be extremely challenging because of the way they’re hidden, camouflaged, or just the feat of getting there. There’s also plenty that are kid friendly and easy to find while just getting out for some fresh air.

Out on the trail that day a Geocache led us down some rabbit trails through low growth pine. The nestled feel under those pines and the way pockets of light shone through revealed an amazing, hidden microcosm.

My daughter could stand up and walk under the low branches while I crouched or crawled on hands and knees. If I stood, the pines would be somewhere between my shoulders and a couple feet over my head.

It was when I decided we weren’t going to find the cache and sat down to enjoy the little world we found, I noticed a sliver of light coming through the branches illuminating a strange growth. It was about as tall as grass, but a lighter green. It also wasn’t thin like a blade of grass, but rather had a round thickness to it. A hundred little arms were bursting up through the earth reaching for the light.

We were waiting for little faeries to come out of hiding and welcome us to their land. All around I noticed tiny mosses, strange cabbage-like leaves, and baby pines just starting to grow.

Then I noticed something even more interesting. Tiny bright green cups growing from the moss on a log. They looked like vessels for little imaginary woodland creatures to come drink magical nectar.

Growing just behind those little cups, I noticed more of the spindly arms. And the cabbage looking stuff. The variety of lichen and moss species all growing in this one square foot area was amazing.

Living in Alaska has made me a logtime outdoor enthusiast, but when it comes to technical knowledge of the natural world that’s where people like @mountainwashere excel. If you like intelligently written science articles check out his profile and give him a follow. He’s trying to start a weekly nature identification thread, and in this week’s edition @fabulousfungi helped me identify some of these specimens. Those little arms reaching from the grave are Cladonia coniocraea, and the pixie-cups are Cladonia fimbriata.

Get outdoors and explore! Take some time to enjoy the amazing things that happen in nature. You’d be impressed what fascinating things you might be walking right past.

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