Diario de rileyvreeves

For this week's nature walk, I ventured back to the Hammon Pond Preservation. I went around 5:20 pm and the weather was very chilly. I noticed a lot more of the trees had changed leaf colors since the last time I visited this trail. Almost immediately upon entering the area, I came across 2 phenotypically different species of Byrophyta, commonly called moss. Moss belongs to the nonvascular plant group. The preservation had the greatest abundance of Byrophyta compared to any of the other 3 groups. I was unable to find any angiosperms on my walk, but I suspect that's due to the colder weather. I did find a few species of ferns that belong to the seedless vascular group. But, I also struggled to find gymnosperms on my walk. However, it was a very nice walk and the preservation had an abundance of plant species in it.

For my nature walk today, I walked through the Hammond Pond Reservation. It was about a 15 minute walk from BC's upper campus dorms. The weather was a lot sunnier than the last time I visited, but once I was in the reservation, the towering oak trees provided some much-needed shade. I went around 4:50 in the afternoon. Almost immediately, I spotted two morphologically different-looking mushrooms and documented them. This website categorized them as the same species even though they looked quite different visually. It made me wonder if those differences arose from environmental factors. Lots of the mushrooms I spotted during my walk looked quite similar at first glance, but then up close you could see distinct differences in color shades and textures. When they were categorized under different genus and species, it made me wonder if they originated from a common ancestor and have any shared traits. I imagine their phylogenetic tree branches would be quite close since I suspect they may be closely related. On my walk, I saw many fungi in the ground, but also a lot of fungi sprouting from fallen tree branches. Overall, it was a pleasant walk with lots of fungi to observe.

I did my nature walk at the Hammond Nature Preserve and pond. The weather during my walk was very chilly and windy, but the sun started to come out towards the end. In this particular location, there was an abundance of mushrooms and moss. But, there was a high species richness to both the mushrooms and the moss in that each one I saw seemed to be of a different species. The mushrooms ranged from colors like white and brown to red and orange. The moss species differed in their phenotypes in that some moss had differently shaped leaves and there was a difference in the thickness and surface covered. The moss I discovered in the pond was very phenotypically different than the moss on the trail, and this makes sense as the two species live in 2 different environments and have to adapt to their own environments. Overall, this spot had an abundance of mushrooms and moss but also had some plants, fruit plants, and lots of towering oak trees. There was a good amount of biodiversity at this Preserve.

Observation Links: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185084466
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185084505
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185084526
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185084618
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185084768