Diario de pecopc

For this walk, I headed over to Houghton Garden near Hammond Pond. I began my walk around 6pm under relatively nice conditions. It was a bit cloudy, but not too chilly and without wind. At the gate surrounding the park, I found a small Garlic Mustard plant. I had seen many of this organism in various places but never knew its name. After entering the park, I found a patch of Virginia Creepers with colors ranging from light green to orange. Next I came across a bushel of purple Live-Forever and green Hay-scented Fern plants near a small pond. Finally, along the pond's edge, I found a Soft Rush plant. Overall, this area had some good plant diversity as well as interesting fauna including rabbits and frogs.

For this walk, I decided to go to the reservation by Hammond Pond, as I had seen several species of fungi here in the past. I started my walk around 5:30pm under cloudy conditions with some light rain. On my way over, I noticed some light green lichen on the trees along Beacon Street. I decided to include this organism in my observations and identified it as Fluffy Dust Lichen. This species is found commonly among the trees in this area and it was interesting to finally put a name to it. Upon entering the Hammond Pond Reservation, I first encountered a Common Greenshield Lichen. This lichen differed from the first by being smaller in size and slightly darker in color. I next found a Whitewash Lichen on a large boulder. Of the the three lichen I found on this walk, this was the lightest in color and provided the smoothest surface. It was also the only organism on this walk to not inhabit a tree. Finally, I found a colony of shelf fungi that I identified as the species Hairy Bracket. This fungus was more difficult to identify. Overall, it was relatively easy to find species of lichen, but more difficult to come across regular fungi.

On this nature walk, I traveled again to Hammond Pond Reservation. I began my walk around 5:15pm under sunny and somewhat warm conditions. The first organism I identified was a Ciliate Hoarmoss, a nonvascular moss, growing on a rock wall. Next, I came across a Great Rhododendron plant which, although an angiosperm, had not yet flowered. I also came across a Common Yew bushel that was only about 5 feet in height. That being said, I learned that some Common Yew trees can grow up to 60 feet. Afterwards, I identified a group of Shrub Yellowroot plants which ranged in color from red to to green. Finally, I found a Hay-scented Fern, which is a common seedless vascular plant in the area. In general, there was a wide variety of plants to observe and, in particular, many different angiosperm trees.