aneshat's Journal

For my observations I found on Mount Royal is Dryad's Saddle, which is also known as Polyporus squamosus and pheasant's back mushroom. It grows around the time of late spring to early fall, and it grows on dying elm, beech, and sycamore trees. I also captured Poplar Bracket, or Oxyporus populinus, an apparent plant pathogen for trees. Turkey-Tail or Trametes versicolor, is another observed species of fungi I have witnessed. It is the most common mushroom in North American woods, and it was found on a dead stump gated off by thick chicken wire. They appear on dead hardwood logs and other similar trees like conifer as well. Weeping Widow is a red mushroom that I found and documented as well. Otherwise known as Lacrymaria lacrymabunda, and is called that due to the black watery droplets that appear at the cap rim. Tapioca Slime Mold, or Brefeldia maxima, is another fungus that I found on Mount Royal. Slime Molds are difficult to remove through conventional means and you may have to do extensive yard work to remove the slime mold if it's an eyesore to view to detrimental to the local flora.

Hello there! I have found some very interesting plants on Mount Royal! In total, I made 14 observations, but this time, but for this post, I am doing three of the observations I made. I took pictures of a leaf, where it was red but then there was a gradient of red to green near the stems or veins of the leaves. Due to these characteristics, it was part of the genus Acer and it was identified to be a Maple leaf. Maples are deciduous and come in opposite pairs, and the genus has about 130 species across Asia, North America, and Europe.

I also found some garden chervil at Mount Royal and I did some reverse research on the unknown plant and I found out that it was garden chervil, a species of plant that has been used in culinary cooking as a seasoning, and was 'introduced' in Canada according to iNaturalist. The plant I encountered had a similar leaf shape to garden chervil and is consistent with where it grows usually. Belongs to Anthriscus cerefolium

Lastly, there are Burdocks, where the plants clung onto fabric, as it happened to a magnifying glass covered in a sock where dead burdocks hung onto. They were burdocks since they had distinctive hooks and they clung onto fabric very easily. I didn't realize I had them on me until very late into discovering more species. It was in the genus Arctium. It was the inspiration of a Swiss inventor to create velcro after his dog got burdocks stuck on his fur. Very interesting plants and species I've discovered with my group as well!

Thank you for your time!