Diario de onetwothree456

I went for a class event in the La Vida program at Gordon College. The weather was nice and calm - it was not too windy, chilly, or hot. The sun's heat was balanced by the general cold temperature of the area. The area I came on was on a small hill, and it was slightly elevated. This was a rich environment for finding different plant organisms because there is a variety of plants and trees in the area. I noticed a lot of mosses, and they were more concentrated on lower levels like on the ground or at the base of a tree. This makes sense since mosses are a part of Bryophyta, which are nonvascular plants and therefore need to be located closer to the ground for easier access to water. I also observed a plant that I thought looked like a fern (which is a seedless vascular plant). But I later discovered that the plant was actually a Hemlock, which is a type of evergreen tree that looks like a fern. An evergreen tree is an example of a non-flowering, vascular plant (which is in the gymnosperm group). I made most of my observations at Gordon College, but I also made some observations at Boston College.

I went on a nature walk through the Pine Tree Preserve and I also made some observations on my way as I walked through the chestnut hill reservoir surroundings. I did the walk in the evening time. But the sky was unexpectedly still lit at that time. The weather was pretty chilly, as it has been for a few days now. And it was slightly raining (it was not too heavy, just a light pouring of rain).

I was initially anxious about getting observations for fungi, because I had not previously seen that many fungi on campus or around campus before. So I was not sure if I would get enough observations of fungi. But to my surprise, I got a lot of observations of fungi during this nature walk. I especially observed a lot of fungi in the Pine Tree Reserve. I think I made observations of different numbers of fungi that were the same species because they appeared the same.

One of the unique fungi that I observed was a mushroom that was red in color. I believe that this was the first mushroom that I observed during this walk. And it was unique in my observations during this walk because most of the other fungi I observed were cream to brown in color.

I mostly observed that the fungi were under leaves and grass. So maybe there is an ecological benefit for the fungi to be close to these grasses. And also the green fungus that I observed was almost always on trees or tree branches. So this may be because this fungus and the trees have a codependent relationship with each other or it might just be a mutually beneficial relationship for the fungus and the tree.

I walked through the walkway beside the reservoir, which goes by the community garden. This walkway is majorly encamped on both sides by trees and different plants. And this is in the state of Massachusetts, in the United States of America. It was in the evening time. The sun had almost finished setting, so the sky had its waning blue color. The weather was actually nice, in that it was not as hot as it was earlier in the day. But the weather was cool with a temperature of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

I was hoping to see an animal that I could take a picture of. A squirrel or a bird - maybe. But I mostly was able to take pictures of the plants. I could hear the birds chirping in the trees as I walked along the walkway. But it was too dark outside for me to clearly notice them. The two most interesting organisms that I observed on the nature walk were the fungus (I believe they were mushrooms) and the plant with purple stems. I found the fungus to be interesting because it was the first non-green plant that I observed on the nature walk. And the reason that the plants with the purple colored stem were interesting to me was that it was different than the other plants that I had observed on the nature walk.
It was interesting to see how unique and different each plant species has evolved to be even though they still shared a lot of traits. For instance, the majority of the plants I observed were green in color but they majorly differed in the shape of their leaves. Some leaves had zig-zag-shaped edges, some were wide, while others were much smaller and narrower. This just highlights the biodiversity around us.

Additionally, I made more observations in the morning. I was able to get a better picture of a plant that I had observed the previous night. It was slightly windy and a bit chilly. It was about 55 degrees Fahrenheit.