Second Nature Walk: Theme = FUNGI !
For my second nature walk, I was given a theme for the organisms I would observe and record: fungi. Although I was somewhat familiar with different kinds of fungi, it was not until our class lecture that I finally delved into what fungi are and how lichens relate to them. For this walk, I decided choosing a location less open would be the best decision for this assignment, therefore I took a trip back to Newton campus (where I had dorm-ed my first year of college) as I knew of a few areas of nature that were not as landscaped. The weather on this Saturday afternoon was very nice (around 70 degrees Fahrenheit) and made for an enjoyable experience. I also had a friend of mine join me in finding different fungi, she had been the one to point out the more interesting observations I made: The Genus Calvatia, which looked abiotic and out of place during our walk. Resembling a white ball of foam, we took a closer look and could see that there was more to this fungal organism than we'd initially thought. This walk was a great way of observing the level of biodiversity present on campus. Although I found that lichens were much more abundant in the area I took my walk in, the species diversity within the fungi was much greater than that present in the lichen.