Fungi Nature Walk

For this week's nature walk, I decided to go to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir to try to find some fungi. I started this walk along the water and saw some animals and plants, but no fungi, so they I decided to take one of the dirt paths off the primary path at the reservoir into the wooded area. In here, almost every tree had lichen, which is a type of fungi, on its bark. Then the more I looked around, the more fungi I saw. I initially found identifying the fungi much more difficult than identifying plants and animals because I am less familiar with anything that does not look like a stereotypical mushroom. I first looked on the forest floor for mushrooms and other types of fungi, but could not find any. I went on my walk before any rain had come through Boston, so that may be a reason as to why (because the forest floor was very dry). When I started looking at the plants and trees, the fungi were much more obvious and the more I looked the more I found. This also touches on the information we learned this week that about 80% of plants have a relationship with fungi, so seeing the fungi growing on or right next to large plants makes sense!

Posted on October 8, 2020 04:44 PM by sarahkc