Fungi Walk 10/09

Today, I went back to Houghton Garden. It was colder than when I went on my "nature run" last week, yet it was much sunnier. When I began my nature walk, I looked for fungi in dark and wet places, as that is the only way I knew how to find them. This walk soon became much more involved than my previous one; when I spotted a particular fungi species, they were usually off the trail. I climbed through the brush of the "woods" many times to get a good shot of an interesting fungi.

As I walked, it was helpful to think about the different ways in which fungi are different from other organisms we've studied. When I wasn't sure whether something I had found on my nature walk was considered to be a species of fungi, I thought about the niche in which I found it. Typically, I found fungi on dead and rotting pieces of wood (or other plants). It made sense to me to classify the organisms I encountered on dead plants as fungi because they play an important role in decomposition within ecosystems.

Posted on October 9, 2024 09:43 PM by p_roy_