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Jessie

@outside__observer

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Naturalist and mycophile in the Pacific Northwest.

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Tiny Moss Navel Cap (Rickenella fibula) growing on a log.

📸: 2026-05-26 by @outside__observer

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5 months ago

A Pacific Tree Frog, also known as the Chorus Frog, spotted on a giant Skunk Cabbage leaf in Stanley Park! I usually hear these guys but seldom get to see them.

📸:2026-05-09 taken in Beaver Lake in Stanley Park by @outside__observer

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5 months ago

Verdigris or blue-green stropharia spotted at Van Dusen gardens.

🆔 : Stropharia aeruginosa
📸 : 2025-10-26 by @outside__observer

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a year ago

This beautiful red coral mushroom looked so vibrant against the forest floor. The white varieties are pretty common but this was my first time seeing a red one.

🆔: Ramaria araiospora
📸: 2025-10-08 by @outside__observer

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a year ago

Just some photogenic Amanita mushrooms ✨

📸 : 2025-10-19 by @outside__observer

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a year ago

Sundews are a type of carnivorous plant that likes to grow in challenging places, like bogs and swamps. Because of their nutrient-poor growing conditions, they supplement their diets with small insects.

This sundew was near Yew Lake on Cypress Mountain, but I’ve also seen them at Camosun Bog and on the West Coast Trail.

🆔: Round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)
📸: 2025-08-03 taken in Cypress Mountain by @outside__observer

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a year ago

The Gnome Plant was a bucket list species for me, and I saw it during my last couple of hours hiking the West Coast Trail! It’s a special plant because it doesn’t have any chlorophyll (hence why it’s pink and not green). It takes a different approach than most plants and, instead of relying on the sun, it taps into the underground mycelial network and extracts nutrients from it! At a talk from @leah_mycelia I learned that it likes to associate with Hydnellum peckii (Bleeding Tooth fungus), which makes me love it even more. Who wouldn’t want to associate with Bleeding Tooth?!

🆔: Hemitomes congestum
📸: 20205-07-30 taken in West Coast Trail by @outside__observer

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a year ago

One of my favourite mushrooms appeared while I was hiking the West Coast Trail! This is the Bleeding Tooth Fungus, also known as Strawberries & Cream or Devil’s Tooth. I personally think it should get an award for the coolest & edgiest mushroom ever.

🆔: Hydnellum peckii
📸: 2025-07-24 taken in West Coast Trail by @outside__observer

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a year ago

Lavender the Canadian Goose hatched six healthy goslings on our roof! Annika at @wildliferescuebc came over to save the day. Thanks to her help, we were able to capture them and relocate them to the safety of False Creek. by @outside__observer

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a year ago

Lavender the Canadian goose has returned to nest on our roof for the second year in a row! by @outside__observer

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a year ago

If you’ve ever gone hiking in the Pacific Northwest in the spring it’s quite likely you’ve been greeted by the pungent aroma of skunk cabbage. Just the name itself is a little off-putting. But this young specimen that I found still had a pretty mild odor and I dared to venture closer. Upon more careful investigation, I realized that the species has quite a unique and attractive yellow hood (called a spathe) and a stalk covered in tiny flowers (called the spadix). Apparently its main pollinators are flies and beetles, who are attracted to the odor which mimics decaying organic matter. When I looked more closely at this young one, I found a tiny sap-sucking beetle (Epurea) crawling down the stalk, as well as about half a dozen Eusphalerum beetles copulating inside the spathe.

After doing some more research I discovered countless other interesting facts about skunk cabbage: it’s been around since at least the Cretaceous period, it’s an herbal remedy known to Indigenous people, it can produce its own heat which allows it to bloom before most other flowers, and (this is my favorite) bears use it as a laxative! Yet for all this, there are still many unknowns about skunk cabbage, and more research needs to be done on this stinky, primeval mystery.

🆔: Western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) by @outside__observer

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a year ago

Some birds from Alaskan National Wildlife Area and Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Delta, B.C.

1. Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)
2. Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)
3. Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris)
4. Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) by @outside__observer

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a year ago