היומן של caelalembo

This afternoon, I went on a nature walk around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and the Pine Tree Preserve on the edge of Boston College's campus. It was cloudy and quite chilly today, and it was very windy. For this walk, I focused on plants as they are this week's theme. I saw nonvascular plants - the crisped pincushion growing on a tree, and seductive entodon moss growing on some rocks. I spotted some hay-scented fern, an example of seedless vascular plants. I checked under the fronds and they were not producing spores. I found cones from a pine tree, a gymnosperm. I also spotted various angiosperms - black-eyed Susans with beautiful yellow flowers, oak trees with some type of organism eating their leaves, and Amur Honeysuckle which was fruiting small red berries. I had a great conversation with a woman who taught me about Tree-of-Heaven, an invasive plant species native to China that grows and chokes its host. The Tree-of-Heaven reproduces very quickly and kills native species. It is also known to have very foul-smelling flowers. On my walk, I also spotted lots of fungi that were very interesting to observe as they had many different morphologies. Many of them were growing on dead trees, some of which seemed to have been killed by the Tree-of-Heaven. I spotted so much interesting biodiversity so close to campus. It was also very interesting to learn about the invasive Tree-of-Heaven.

This afternoon, I went on a nature walk to Houghton Garden, not far from BC's campus. The weather was perfect! It was 65 degrees and sunny. On my walk, I was hoping to find some fungi as they are this week's theme. I first found a violet-toothed polypore. This fungus was growing between two tree trunks. It was a light white color with some beige/tan striations. They looked like little shelves growing off the tree. I also spotted crowded parchment growing on the raw edge of a tree trunk someone has cut down. This fungus is a plant pathogen. These were very small and might be a young organism that will grow bigger as it continues to infect the tree. I hope I can spot some more interesting fungi on future walks!

I took a nature walk this evening around 5:30 pm through the Pine Tree Preserve on Boston College's campus and around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. It was a partly sunny, warm fall day, about 70 degrees F. The leaves are just starting to change colors here in Boston. I saw many plants, but not too many animals. I took particular note of various lichens and mosses on rocks and large trees. Another interesting find was evidence of Dendroctonus, a genus of bark eating beetles that are very destructive to conifers in North America.