Winter Cattails-Surprised Again!

We started our cattail study last fall with this entry: Cattails in Autumn.

We had two locations to visit for this study....one within walking distance and another up on our regular walking trail on the other side of town.

Here are the cattails near our house.

Our cattails are starting to look a little ragged. The water that was there in the fall has now completely dried up. The stalks of the cattails are dry, stiff, and hard. The leaves are stiff as well.


Here is our cattail area that is along our walking trail. I think that someone came and cut a lot of the actual cattails. Even thought they are still growing in water, the leaves and stems are all brown and stiff.


There is still a little water in this area that flows down to a creek. We all noticed that the water was a little smelly this time of year....hmmmm. We enjoyed having a purpose to our walk today and it was nice to focus on something other than the cold air. :)

The other interesting thing that we noted on this walk was that there were lots of mushrooms growing. Here are three different kinds that we stopped and looked at.


There were lots of this kind pushing up through the leaves.


There were some that were really white.


Then we saw this cute little yellow mushroom.

We are off to another hike today but this time down to the river. We will keep our eyes out for anything interesting.

Hope you get a chance to look for your cattails.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom