Diario de lisabyskov

I walked to the Hammond Pond Reserve in about 62 degrees F with scattered drizzling. It had rained more prior to the walk so almost everything was slightly damp. On the walk over to the reservation, I noticed a beautiful vine climbing up a brick wall with gradual changes in color for the fall season. I also noticed many evergreen trees (Gymnosperms), potentially pine trees, growing around the reservation, however, I did not notice any pine cones. I noticed some Polypodiopsida, specifically ferns, some having grown a yellow color. I am not entirely sure if this indicates death or simply changing in colors for fall. I also noticed some flowers (Angiosperms) that were closed up and looked like buds. I am not sure why they are closed but perhaps it has something to do with the colder weather. There was also a smaller flowering plant. There was also a lot of moss (Bryophyta) spread across many rocks, trees and the ground. It's interesting to think about how land plants like these have been around for approximately 475 million years ago, in the Phanerozoic Eon. I wonder if these specific plants have been present in the fossil record or if they are slightly different. Overall, this was an amazing walk with beautiful trees, colorful leaves, ponds, and fog.

Today, I walked for about 35 minutes in the Pine Tree Reserve, looking for places where I may find Fungi, either growing from the ground or from the tree bark. The temperature was around 59 degrees Fahrenheit with drizzling rain. At first, I really struggled to find any mushrooms or fungus around the area. I found many different kinds of flowers, however, noticed that most were the only ones, rather than a batch of them. This may be due to the coming winter as flowers begin to wither and leaves begin to fall. To add, I saw a squirrel, some fuzzy leaves, and tree moss. I found two fungi-looking species that appeared to be mushrooms. One was a single large mushroom and had some damage to the side of it. The other observation was two much smaller mushrooms which lacked that perfect round shape that many mushrooms have. It is interesting that after two laps around the reserve, I could only really spot these two species of fungi. While I was trying to identify these mushrooms based on appearance, there were a lot of different species that looked very similar. Therefore, when scientists first distinguished these species, they likely used the phylogenic species concept rather than the morphological species concept. For me, the best way to identify the mushrooms I found accurately, is to take DNA samples. However, based on solely the two mushrooms I found, I can reasonably assume that they are different species based on size and shape differences (which is deduced from morphological species concept).

I walked for about 45 minutes on by the edge of Thomas More Rd. I walked from there to the Chestnut Hill reservoir. There was a section to the side where trees, grass and other clearly wild plants grew. Although all my observations were plants, I did see a bee, some birds, and a swan. However, these were simply just harder to catch a picture of. The weather was cloudy with a temperature of about 61 degrees F. In the initial place I walked before reaching the reservoir, I noticed that there was not much grass, however, there was moss, fungi and small leaved plants. The lack of grass was likely due to the tall trees that surrounded the area, blocking sun for shorter plants to grow. The moss was very cool looking with spikes and was spread across a lot of the ground as they need less sun to survive than most plants. The fungi was growing off a tree trunk in clusters. Once at the reservoir, there were many types of flowers such as the American Asters and )(my favorite observation) there were some very beautiful berry-like plants with a variety of colors such as purple and pink. Sadly, I also noticed a large amount of trash such as cans and plastic bags scattered among the nature.