articles & Posts

A Budding Curiosity

Photographs & articles produced by Noah Hilton unless otherwise stated.

ARTICLES

A nearly 500 million year long origin story that lead to the transformation of the face of the Earth and continues to impact human existence to this day.

Polypores

Honeybees & Bumblebees

Differentiating these pollinators and understanding their significance in global ecosystems.

Research inspiration:

Social Posts

@a.budding.curiosity

View fullsize
View fullsize As promised, here is the update on Bun! In pic. 1 you can see that the hymenium (underside of the mushroom cap) looks smooth. That smooth part is actually a protective covering called a veil. As Bun matures in pic. 2 & 3, the veil begins to break
View fullsize
View fullsize This is the incredibly rare brioche bun mushroom! It’s actually one of the 100 species in the incredibly common Agrocybe genus, but it’s giving bun energy, no? 🍔 Bun popped out of the wood chips next to my house yesterday after some hea
View fullsize I knew that the Conifercone Cap (Baeospora myosura) was common in North America, but I was so excited at my first sighting that I quite literally jumped for joy. I had only ever read about them in guides and articles, and you’d have thought by
View fullsize These adorable, alien looking flowers belong to the Norway Maple! Flowers can often be used for tree identification as easily as the bark and leaves. We’re learning 4 terms for identification today: corymb, dioecious, monoecious and oppositely
View fullsize Spring is here, it’s finally here! The warm weather and sunlight brings not only this account out of hibernation (hey everyone), but also the blooming flowers, buds and saplings of various species. These are the flowers of the INFAMOUS flowerin
View fullsize Guttation is one of the coolest, easily identifiable processes of mushroom growth. It’s also leading to some incredible scientific discoveries! 🍄 As mentioned a few posts back, guttation is the exudation of metabolic byproducts in the form of
View fullsize I think I just came across my new favorite spider! This is a female Marbled Orb-Weaver (Araneus marmoreus). While they spin orb-shaped webs *hence the name* like many spiders, they have an awesome mechanism for catching prey. 🕸️The Marbled Orb-Weav
View fullsize
View fullsize Hemlock varnish shelf or hemlock reishi (Ganoderma tsugae), is a polypore mushroom that almost exclusively grows on eastern hemlocks. I found these giants growing on old growth Hemlocks in Laurel Highlanads State Park. 🍄Hemlock reishi can
View fullsize Fan clubmoss (Diphasiastrum digitatum) may be my all-time favorite groundcover- here’s why: 🦖Clubmoss are believed to have evolved 410 million years ago, making them one of the earliest groups of vascular plants on the planet. 🍄Similarly t