Today's trek took me into the heart of what appears to be a bona fide fen—a kind of peat-forming wetland whose water is more neutral or even alkaline than our typical acidic-chemistry bogs—and my job, besides getting out of the fen in one piece, was to start sampling the vegetation and maybe getting pictures and recordings of bird life, especially those elusive Empidonax flycatchers rumored to be fen residents. There was no sign or sound of avian mysteries, and the sedges weren't far enough along to provide a clue about the water's pH, but on a patch of moss I located a genuine head-scratcher: a patch of tiny, mushroom-like, clean-stemmed vegetation that, I had to admit, I couldn't identify. Heck, I couldn't even be sure of where in the Tree of Life it belonged. From the clear stipes and the propeller like "things"—now there's a scientific term—at their end, I'm guessing that the dark "things" that resemble mushroom caps might have been the aftermath of an explosive method of spore dissemination—a technique I remember from a dung-loving fungus called Pilobolus. But until I can contact the proper expert, I really am stumped.