Diario de sengutengu

I went to Chestnut Hill Reservation, a wooded hill much smaller than Edmands Park, after work. The weather was hot (80°F) and humid but overall clear. I found some buttercups (Angiosperms: Ranunculus sp.) at the entrance to start, and soon found myself reaching and squatting to take pictures of plants that I had never paid attention to before. I was able to find some smoothcap moss and tree-skirt moss (Bryophyta) at and around the base of oak trees, an eastern white pine (Gymnosperms: Pinus strobus) and a juniper bush (Gymnosperm: Juniperus sp.), and many Angiosperms like burdocks, brambles, garlic mustards, buckthorns, and poison ivy.

I was disappointed that I couldn't find any ferns (Polypodiophyta), but the reservation, sitting on a hill, seemed much drier than I realized, perhaps too dry to support the growth of fern gametophytes. However, I was able to see that mosses do have male and female gametophytes—the male gametophytes have star-shaped heads, while the females have more conventional, spiky heads. After rainfall, I might be able to spot some moss sporophytes. Finally, I was able to appreciate the diversity of Angiosperms. I spotted a bramble bush with white flowers and dense spikes, some low-growing Persicaria with dense, purple dots as flowers, and, of course, buttercups, of which the flower shape apparently acts as a condenser for sunlight and warms up any visiting pollinators.

I went to Edmands Park, a small forest adjacent to Boston College's Newton Campus, during my lunch break today. The weather was overcast and fairly chilly at 63 degrees Fahrenheit with a moderate breeze—I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find any fungi due to the cold weather. However, I was actually able to find quite a few fungi which had, I think, grown before the weather got cold. Soon after entering the woods, I was able to find some common greenshield lichen (Ascomycota: Flavoparmelia caperata) on a fallen log, and marshmallow polypore (Basidiomycota: Irpiciporus pachydon) on a living tree. Soon after, I found some turkey tails (Basidiomycota: Stereum sp.), also on a fallen log. Some time later, I found a gall on a plant, which I learned is probably due to bacteria rather than fungi, then I was able to find some white fungus (Ascomycota: Chromelosporium sp.) colonizing the soil off of the trail as well as some brittle cinder (Ascomycota: Kretzschmaria deusta) colonizing the space between the roots of a dead tree and the soil, which was a notable distribution.

The places at which these fungi were found were consistent with the roles of fungi that we learned about in class. Four of the five fungi were found on tree bark, mostly dead, with the fifth—the white fungus—found in moist soil rich in decaying plant matter. These locations demonstrate the role of fungi as decomposers that target and release for cycling the carbon compounds in plant matter. Further, the greenshield lichen, while not a mycorrhyzal mutualist of a plant, represents a symbiotic union of fungi and Trebouxia algae. Morphologically, the Basidiomycetes both showed basidiocarps from which spores would be released. The widespread distribution of the Stereum, and the height at which the marshmallow polypore was found, suggest that releasing spores is a successful reproductive strategy. Finally, I was surprised by how firm the brittle cinder was—I figured that the chitin in fungal cell walls really do make them tougher.