20 de octubre de 2022

Plants Nature Walk

My computer broke I needed to go to the Apple store to get it fixed. I was thinking of Ubering but when I looked up the route of how to get there, it said that it was about a 35minute walk and it cut through Webster Conservation Area. Sounded like a perfect nature walk to me! The weather was on the chillier side but the full sun helped to warm it up. As I walked I noticed all of the beautiful leaves changing colors. I noticed Polypodiosida and Gymnosperms plants as I walked along the side of the forestry area. I saw some Angiosperms as well when I walked but did not snap any picture of those. My true excitement came from when I saw Bryophyta growing on a rock. I ran off the trail I was on and climbed the rock to get a close up picture of the moss. It was a really cool sight. This was one of my favorite nature walks and it was so peaceful. I loved looking out into the woods and seeing the tall trees with the vibrant red, yellow and orange colors.

Publicado el octubre 20, 2022 02:44 MAÑANA por ellengallagher ellengallagher | 6 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

06 de octubre de 2022

2nd Eco Evo Nature Walk

This week for my walk, I went to the Houghton Garden Conservation Area with some other members from the class. The weather was rainy which made for very moist ground and the plants to appear wet. It felt nice to step away from campus and walk in an actual place with trails. We saw many trees and other plants as it was a woodsy area. We also walked over a little pound and saw some ducks swimming. The main thing that we were looking for was fungi. We saw many different types of fungi, some were growing in the ground, on trees or at the base of the trees. The fungi were also different colors. Some of them were white, most of them were an orange-brown color and one was ever purple. When I was walking, this made me think back to class and learning about the tree of life. I wondered how closely related these different types of fungi were and if they would form a clade. I wondered what their common ancestor was. I also know that fungi is a eukaryotic organism and therefor have a nucleus enclosed within the membrane. It was interesting to be able to see real life examples of fungi in nature instead of just learning about it in class. We saw many different kinds of fungi, I didn't realize that when you really look for them, they can be easy to spot in nature!

Publicado el octubre 6, 2022 12:43 TARDE por ellengallagher ellengallagher | 5 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

30 de septiembre de 2022

Eco Evo 1st iNaturalist Walk

For my nature walk I decided to walk around the outskirts of the Newton campus. The Newton campus is surrounded by woods and you can walk through and around these woods in various parts of the campus. I went on the walk after dinner from about 6 until 7. It was around dusk so the sky was very pretty as the sun was setting. It was also starting to get a little cooler. As I walked, I noticed a lot of trees that made up the majority of the woods. I also saw fern-like plants at various points along my walk. One plant that I saw had a red colored stem and a few red and green leaves on it. I thought that was very unique and was worth taking a picture of for an observation. I also saw what I think was berries on a plant. They were a dark purple/black color. I wondered if they were poisonous and whether or not animals can eat them. I heard a few times during my walk scuffling in the bushes and saw leaves move around that area. I am assuming animals like squirrels and bunnies were probably the result on that. I could not snap a picture of an of the animals as they ran off when I can near. As I walked, I kept thinking back to class and how these species have adapted to these specific conditions in the Newton woods. It took generations and only the fittest species survived to reproduce and formulate the plants that we see now. I wondered if there was ever a bottleneck incident where only a few kinds of these species survived and shifted the gene frequencies. I also wondered how closely related some of these species were to each other. A lot of the plants and shrubbery looked very similar but could have experienced convergent evolution where they are not closely related but have evolved separately to have similar traits.

Publicado el septiembre 30, 2022 06:14 TARDE por ellengallagher ellengallagher | 5 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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