my son spent a lot of his youth watching the series “planet earth.” he had barely learned to talk before he was lecturing us, in a fairly pronounced lisp, on the species of the subarctic taiga, to pick an example at random. because he was a boy, and because testosterone is a strange drug, his favorite episode was the cordyceps episode. he watched over and over in horrified fascination as the members of an ant colony were stricken, one by one, with cordyceps mushrooms, which blossomed lethally out of their heads and other body parts, as other ants hurried them away like lepers, so that the rest of the colony might be spared. so yes, these bursting pussy willow catkins are delicate and lovely, and full of pollen that our awakening bees will soon be visiting. but i have a boy. so what i see are cordyceps.

pussy willow (male catkins)

vadnais lake trail, saint paul, minnesota