Andrew Trundlewagon's photos with the keyword: beech tree

Possibly of limited interest but here it is anyway. These are the sporing bodies (or perithecia) of the beech blister fungus. The fungus infects beech trees through wounds caused by a tiny insect, the beech scale insect (Cryptococcus fagisuga). The fungus causes blisters to form in the bark. I have read estimates that between 50 and 86% of the trees will die from the disease. The insect is an invasive species that probably arrived in Canada through Nova Scotia in the early 20th century. (If you look closely, there are some small black animals crawling among the fungus. These are some kind of springtail).

Plants behaving badly: Beech-drops (Epifagus virginiana) are parasitic plants that grow on the roots of beech trees. They only emerge above ground to flower. Beech-drops lack chlorophyll as they obtain all their nutrients from the host trees with most of their life spent underground attached to the tree root. In this way they can survive in the deep shade of the forest floor. The flowering plants are about 20 to 30 cm tall and look like dead sticks until backlit, when the delicacy of their flowers appears.