First iNaturalist Nature Walk - Boston College BIOL2010 Ecology & Evolution

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.

Publicado el junio 7, 2023 08:37 TARDE por sengutengu