sarahfigueroa's Journal

Today I went for a walk around Houghton Garden. In the front, there is a small garden of cultivated plants but a bit farther back there are trails surrounding a small body of water. Going into this walk I was not expecting to see a lot of fungi and thought that I was going to have to pay very close attention to the ground in order to find any. While I did have to be attentive, there as a surplus of fungus species throughout the park. There were some fungi just off the past but the places I saw the most were on and around fallen trees or stumps. After realizing this pattern, I went off the path to inspect fallen trees and had success doing this. The weather was cool and overcast, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. While it was relatively dry today, the ground and plants were decently moist, especially closer to the pond.

Today I went for a walk in the conservation area behind my house. I’ve grown up with these woods behind my house and am very familiar with the paths. However, I didn't realize how little I knew about the plants that were back there. Besides the major types of trees - pine, oak, maple, etc. - I had no idea what the plants were called or how diverse the forest was. One plant that I had noticed before but not known what it was was the sassafras tree, pictured below, that has very uniques leaves. I also had never noticed how many different kinds of mosses there were. Although they are not all pictured, I had never noticed the differences between the types of mosses until looking at them more closely on this walk. The weather was almost perfect, partly sunny and ~65 degrees with very little wind.