{"id":4032,"date":"2026-08-28T14:09:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/?p=4032"},"modified":"2026-08-05T14:36:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:36:40","slug":"griffins-beat-decay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/2026\/08\/griffins-beat-decay\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffin’s Beat: Decay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey everyone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s your local Reed they\/them, Griffin \u201928. Now it\u2019s been a little while since you last heard from me (since Reunions<\/a>!) I know I know I left for too long\u2013I\u2019m sorry but everyone has to have a little vacation time; it is summer after all\u2026. But I\u2019m back! Since the powers at be for this blog have let me run wild with my own ideas, I figured it would be fun to write a little post about my absolute favorite section of the circle of life: DecaaaaAAAAAaaAyyyy<\/em>. (that was supposed to be singing).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, ok, I know what you’re gonna say: ewwww Griffin, decay is gross and nasty and smelly and gross why would I want to pay attention to an article about rotting? But if you just stick with me here for a second I will show you super cool stuff about decay and some of the places on campus YOU can get your hands on alllllll types of decay!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting off: the answer that I\u2019m pretty sure everyone was already thinking: the canyon!<\/a> While the beautiful Reed canyon acts as the students’ metaphoric wall between dorm life and classes, it also has an absolute abundance of species that most students walk over everyday without noticing. We can start with the mushrooms! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could spend all day reciting the different species of mushrooms that I have found on campus but I\u2019m gonna let you know a couple highlights of these excellent decomposers that help keep our soil nourished! Under the blue bridge and scattered around the canyon trails, there are fallen trees and logs that are one of the favorite hosts of Scurfy Twiglets<\/em><\/a> (they have socks\u2013look it up), all types of bonnet mushrooms, and the Red edge Brittlestem<\/em> (the edges are white why would they call them that?).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Red edge brittlestem found near campus<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u00a0If you keep your eyes planted on the soil (get it?) then you’ll definitely be able to see some California Flat top Agaricus<\/a><\/em>. They are one of the most abundant species on campus and easily recognizable with their beautiful pink gills on the underside of their white cap. If you love pink, good news for you, there are other mushrooms on campus that are full of it, like the artist conch and and Pink Polypore Mould:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist Conk<\/em> in the canyon, covered in invasive English Ivy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pink Polypore Mould<\/em><\/a> from elsewhere in Multnomah County<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If your tastes are a little more\u2026alien, then keep an eye out for ruffled seeming piles of leaves in the fall. You might be able to see some of the creepier fungi on campus with the Wrinkled Club Fungus<\/em> or Fairy Fingers<\/em>. I find them most often on the north side of the canyon for some reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fairy fingers<\/em> in the canyon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can also use one of my absolute favorite Reed resources, The Reed Tree Map<\/a>, to find the locations of specific species of trees on campus. This will help you pinpoint where you need to be looking for more specialized fungi, like the red spongey oak-loving bolete<\/a><\/em> and the Brown Birch bolete<\/a><\/em>, both of which often grow off the roots of their respective tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across campus, you can find many of the other visible members of the F.B.I. (fungi, bacteria, invertebrates). My personal favorite are the many slug species that we have on campus. While you can find them often sliming around tree stumps in the canyon, I find that the best place to pack in as much slug-watching as possible is the moss covered retaining wall in front of the Reed Garden House. The most important thing to remember for the hunt is that they are nocturnal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some wild species you can see on campus include cellar slugs, meadow slugs, milky slugs, three band garden slugs, Western dusky slug, and the big papa who rules the wall: The Leopard Slug.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leopard slug on campus, with a quarter for scale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leopard slugs are the second largest terrestrial slug species in the world, are incredibly fast (6 inches per minute), and have excellent homing skills, meaning they sleep in the same location every day. I personally have four pet leopard slugs that are each about seven inches long and the width of a quarter. Yeah. When I said they were big I meant it. I love my slimy children.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altogether, these detritivore species that are found all across our wonderful campus help to keep our canyon balanced! They are essential for all flora and fauna life on campus, including the wonderful food that is grown in the campus garden for the Reed Community Pantry<\/a>. While they may be a little bit creepy or weird or slimy, I encourage you to to take a look down at the floor next time you’re walking somewhere lush and see if you can see the little housekeepers that keep our world moving.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos courtesy of users on iNaturalist, a citizen-science driven website where folks record their nature sightings around the world. Check out other flora and fauna seen on the Reed campus<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey everyone! It’s your local Reed they\/them, Griffin \u201928. Now it\u2019s been a little while since you last heard from me (since Reunions!) I know I know I left for too long\u2013I\u2019m sorry but everyone has to have a little vacation time; it is summer after all\u2026. But I\u2019m back! Since the powers at be … Continue reading Griffin’s Beat: Decay<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2891,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[188],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-4032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus","tag-campus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4038,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4032\/revisions\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}