reginahfinn's Journal

I began my walk today around the Chestnut Hill Reservation in very misty weather. Although there was no sun and lots of dark clouds in the sky, it was not too cold and I enjoyed the chilled air in my rain jacket. Rather quickly I ran into trouble finding examples of fungi around the reservation. Instead, once I made my way around the reservoir, I ventured into the forested hiking path. There, I was able to find varying types of fungi on trees and on the ground. Their variety in color and shapes indicated a different evolutionary history. Due to their visual differences and lack of sexual reproduction in fungi, the only way to categorize them would be through phylogeny. I also thought about the lack of competition or protection that the yellow fungi must have. We talked about how birds of paradise use a high amount of their energy to produce their colors. Unlike the rest of the fungi I photographed on my walk that were brown or neutral colors, this fungi had a bright yellow color against the tree. Therefore, I would assume that the yellow fungi are either a very different species that aren’t competing for the same resources, or is poisonous so it is not eaten. Overall, even though at the start I was discouraged thinking I would not find any examples of fungi, I had a really good time seeing the variety in such a small location.

Today, I walked around the Reservoir before my classes. Today was probably the coldest it has been however, I was still able to just be in a sweatshirt. This week's activity, finding plants, was much easier to find than the fungi. It was also refreshing to have a sunny day again. This week, I found each of the types of plants relatively easily. In connection with this week's class material, I was able to observe the relative abundance of each of these plants in accordance with their evolutionary development. When walking around the reservoir, I saw tons of flowering plants and only had small instances where I saw moss. This aligns with our class discussion on which plants are most prominent in society in accordance with evolution. Furthermore, I also noticed the location of these plants related to our discussion on the challenges of being a land plant. The moss I found was only green on the side closest to the water, indicating its trouble in retaining the water.