Nature's November Rainbow

While walking at Bog Meadow Brook Nature Preserve last week, I glanced across a pond to see these Winterberry shrubs glowing vibrantly amid the forest's darkness.  The surprise of encountering such vivid color when much of nature has retreated into the grays and browns of late autumn set me to looking about for other colorful surprises still to be found along this and other nature trails.  And I discovered that I could still find a veritable rainbow of vivid hues, even in mid-November.

The REDs, of course, are still plentiful, with entire swamps blazing with masses of Winterberry (Ilex verticillata).

A somewhat more surprising RED find are the still-vivid pedicels of Gray Dogwood berries (Cornus racemosa).

ORANGE comes next on the spectrum, and I was lucky to find a gorgeous cluster of Orange Mycena mushrooms (Mycena leaiana).

Seeking examples of YELLOW,  masses of Lemon Drop Fungus (Bisporella citrina) certainly delivered a punch of that vivid color.

As for GREEN, a walk along some spring-watered cliffs presented me with this beautiful clump of Marsh Cardinal Moss (Ptychostomum pseudotriquetrum), its star-shaped leaves tipped with sparkling water drops.

I feared that BLUE examples would be more difficult to find, but that was before I discovered this remarkably large mass of Blue Stain Fungus (Chlorociboria aeruginascens).

As for PURPLE, I knew exactly where to look, for the ordinarily green leaves of Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) turn quite a lovely shade of purple in the fall.