Nature Walk #2- Fungi

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.

Publicado el 04 de octubre de 2023 por rileyvreeves