At the end of the last Ice Age about 12,500 years ago, PEI would have looked more lunar than Earthly: no vegetation, just clay, silt,...

Welcome back to Ask a Naturalist, your own personal Google for information on all things natural on PEI. Winter is great time to spot...

PEI’s autumn leaves are gone, but there are still bright splashes of colour in the landscape. One of my favourites is the tiny but...

In honour of Halloween, let’s look at something that can make PEI’s trees look decidedly eerie: Old Man’s Beard Lichens ( Usnea  spp.)...

Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, a weekly look at some of PEI’s beginner-level fungi. Today it’s the distinctive Ornate-stalked Bolete (...

September marks the return of Mushroom Mondays! Let’s start the season with some common, easy-to-identify choice edibles: Meadow...

The fantastic rain PEI has had over the past week has encouraged our wild fungi to start fruiting, and Chanterelles (Cantharellus spp.)...

I’m always on the lookout for new-to-me PEI fungi and so was pleased to spot a choice edible species during one of my recent plant...

Of all the plants on PEI, I think Mayflowers (Epigaea repens) are the ones with which Islanders have the deepest connection.  If you...

If you are at all familiar with PEI’s famous sand dunes, you likely understand the importance of Marram Grass (Ammophila breviligulata)...

March snowmelt marks the welcomed advance of spring on PEI, but for about one in five people it also means the return of far-less-popular...

Some of PEI’s natural habitats punch well above their weight – their importance far exceeds the area they occupy in the landscape....

I hope you didn’t find a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking, but did you know you can find it along PEI’s shores?  Let’s start the...

We’ve lost our nature literacy.  Here’s why that matters. It wasn’t that long ago that just about every Islander knew how to catch a...

If decorating a tree is part of your December routine, you’re not alone. PEI’s Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) have been doing...

Welcome back to Ask a Naturalist: your own personal “Google” for information on all things natural on PEI!  Recently, we looked at the...

As a professional botanist, I don’t know my mushrooms well, but I am working to learn more.  This fall, I’m sharing some easily...

As a professional botanist, I don’t know my mushrooms well, but I am working to learn more.  This fall, I’m sharing some easily...

As a professional botanist, I don’t know my mushrooms well, but I am working to learn more. This fall, I’m sharing some easily...

Black Trumpets (Craterellus fallax) can be hard fungi to find, but they are choice edibles not easily mistaken for anything else. For...