annahermann's Journal

For this nature walk, I walked through Pine Tree Preserve on campus to the reservoir where I then explored some woodsy areas off of the paths. The weather was cooler this morning than it was on the last nature walk I went on, and it was overcast. Similarly to on my first nature walk, however, I was surprised by how much fungi I was able to observe–especially now that I was looking for it. As I continued my walk, I learned to look in a few common places in which I tended to find fungi: on and around the bottom of tree trunks, on tree stumps, and on and around rocks. I noticed that a lot of the fungi that I observed had visual similarities. For instance, all of my observations were light brown or tan in appearance and the majority appeared to be a spongy texture. Additionally, many of the mushrooms I saw shared the appearance of a rounded cap. These similarities are evidence of a shared common ancestor which is supported by the fact that fungi form a clade on the tree of life, something that we have discussed in lecture. However, despite these similarities, all of my observations were slightly different from each other–some more than others. For instance, the observations under genus trametes and bracket fungi looked a lot different from my other observations. The differences amongst my observations is evidence of divergent evolution, because, despite knowing that these fungi share a common ancestor, they are visually distinct from one another.

This week I took a long walk towards Burr Park. It was beautiful out–sunny and warm with a slight fall chill in the air. Despite ending up at Burr Park, the majority of my observations were made on my way there in small wooded areas off the sides of roads and even along the sidewalks I was walking on. Some of the plants that I observed existed in the midst of cultivated plants but were not themselves cultivated. For example, some of the mosses and other short plants that I observed had grown on tree trunks and their roots. Despite the fact that the tree may have been cultivated, these plants had not been and had arisen on their own. It is interesting to see how the cultivated environment interacts with the non-cultivated environment as there is not always a clear-cut line between the two. While I am confident that I was able to identify angiosperms (for example, my observations under the titles "goldenrods," "spurges," "goosefoots," and "woodsorrels") and bryophyta (for example, my observation under the title "silvery bryum"), I don't think that I was able to identify polypodiopsida, and I was unsure if I had observed gymnosperms. While I did see evergreen trees on my walk, many were on or near properties so I was not confident that they had not been cultivated. However, these would be examples of gymnosperms. One connection I made to the lecture material was how the moss that I observed was always short in height (they were either low to the ground or practically flat against a tree, rock, or other surface). This connects to how plants had to adapt to the challenge of gravity in terrestrial environments and how many present-day mosses have elongated cells with little structural support which is why they cannot grow to tall heights.