Geoff Wisner
@geoffwisner.bsky.social
Author of A Basket of Leaves (2007). Editor of African Lives (2013), Thoreau's Wildflowers (2016), Thoreau's Animals (2017), A Year of Birds (2024), and George Templeton Strong: Civil War Diaries (January 2026!).
...and sometimes I find a grub, though it is now cold weather and the plant is covered with ice. Not only our peas and grain have their weevils, but the fruit of the indigo-weed!
December 8, 2025 at 12:35 PM
...and sometimes I find a grub, though it is now cold weather and the plant is covered with ice. Not only our peas and grain have their weevils, but the fruit of the indigo-weed!
Not only our peas and grain have their weevils, but the fruit of the indigo-weed! Almost every seed-vessel, which contains half a dozen seeds or more, contains also a little black six-legged bug which gnaws the seeds...
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
December 8, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Not only our peas and grain have their weevils, but the fruit of the indigo-weed! Almost every seed-vessel, which contains half a dozen seeds or more, contains also a little black six-legged bug which gnaws the seeds...
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
[Union Station in Providence was designed by Thomas Tefft, who was 21 when the building was completed and died at age 33. Photo taken at age 20.]
December 6, 2025 at 12:50 PM
[Union Station in Providence was designed by Thomas Tefft, who was 21 when the building was completed and died at age 33. Photo taken at age 20.]
Was struck with the Providence depot, its towers and great length of brick. Lectured in it. [Union Station in 1857 and 1886]
December 6, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Was struck with the Providence depot, its towers and great length of brick. Lectured in it. [Union Station in 1857 and 1886]
...This is a hollow bag, which, when you touch it, spurts forth a yellowish-white powder three or four inches through its orifice.
December 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
...This is a hollow bag, which, when you touch it, spurts forth a yellowish-white powder three or four inches through its orifice.
...The thick outer skin of many (it is pink-red inside) had already curled back (it splits into segments and curls parallel to the axis of the plant) and revealed the pinkish fawn-colored puffball capped with a red dimple or crown....
December 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
...The thick outer skin of many (it is pink-red inside) had already curled back (it splits into segments and curls parallel to the axis of the plant) and revealed the pinkish fawn-colored puffball capped with a red dimple or crown....
September 24, 1860
In Wood Thrush Path at Flint's Pond, a great many of the geiropodium fungus now shed their dust. When closed it is [a] roundish or conical orange-colored fungus three quarters of an inch in diameter, covered with a mucilaginous matter....
In Wood Thrush Path at Flint's Pond, a great many of the geiropodium fungus now shed their dust. When closed it is [a] roundish or conical orange-colored fungus three quarters of an inch in diameter, covered with a mucilaginous matter....
December 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
September 24, 1860
In Wood Thrush Path at Flint's Pond, a great many of the geiropodium fungus now shed their dust. When closed it is [a] roundish or conical orange-colored fungus three quarters of an inch in diameter, covered with a mucilaginous matter....
In Wood Thrush Path at Flint's Pond, a great many of the geiropodium fungus now shed their dust. When closed it is [a] roundish or conical orange-colored fungus three quarters of an inch in diameter, covered with a mucilaginous matter....
March 4, 1854
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
December 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
March 4, 1854
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
The description seems to match the stalked puffball-in-aspic (Calostoma cinnabarinum), sometimes called gyropodium in his day.
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?
December 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
The description seems to match the stalked puffball-in-aspic (Calostoma cinnabarinum), sometimes called gyropodium in his day.
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?