Blog Assignment #5: Fungi Field Trip
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| Salmonberry Leaf |
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| Salmonberry Leaf with Middle Pulled Back |
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| Salmonberry Flower |
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| Bird's Nest Fungus
Questions:
Discuss at least 2 organisms (fungi, plant, animal) that you saw on the fungi field trip. Tell us at least one thing you learned about that organism.
One organism I observed on the fungi field trip was the salmonberry plant! I didn't know what a salmonberry was before the field trip, but I learned that they look like raspberries and you can identify the plant by pulling back the middle of the leaf and it will resemble a butterfly (first & second picture!). They also have really cute pink flowers, but I could only find one on the plant I observed.
Another organism I observed was the bird's nest fungi in the last picture! I think Ghazal found it which was really impressive because it was so small and almost the same color as the branch it was on. Karina said that the fruiting bodies usually look like they have little eggs in them (hence the name) but we must have just missed them.
We also found some bracket fungi on a log, a type of crust fungus on another log, and lots of lichen,
I learned all the identities of these organisms from Karina.
Did you learn something about fungi or plants that surprised you?
Learning how large the mycelial network of fungi is was really surprising, even though we had already talked about it in class. Actually standing out there really made me understand how impressive it is.
I observed quite a few kinds of fungi which was surprising because Karina mentioned at the beginning it wasn't really the time of year to see many, so it was cool that we (Ghazal with her great eyesight...) were able to find some! I learned that lichen actually grows really slow, sometimes only a millimeter a year, and seeing how big some of it was I was really impressed!!
Write at least 3 scientific questions based on your observation.
The spores of the bird's nest fungi can be dispersed easily by rainwater because of the shape of the fruiting bodies.
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I also wonder how long the bracket fungi had been growing. When I was researching them to write my blog post I read about the world's largest bracket fungi was found on the underside of a tree in China, 10m long and 80cm wide and weighs half a ton! They estimated it has been growing for 20 years! Based on the size of the one we saw it has probably only been growing for a couple years!
ReplyDeleteGreat picture of the salmonberry flower! I didn't even notice in person when we were there, that's a great catch. It would be pretty interesting to try to design an experiment around the hypothesis about the bird's nest fungi, and I wonder if it specifically fruits around this time of year or if it's year-round.
ReplyDeleteThose are some great photos of salmon berry bushes! When I was out looking for fungi the other day they could be seen pretty much everywhere one looked, those pictures are great quality. The bird's nest fungi is very cool looking too, I only found fungi growing on trees where I was searching, I wonder what the benefit is for the fungi to have structures that resemble birds nests?
ReplyDeleteThe bird's nest fungus was really interesting! It was a great photo. I did a little research and it turns out the benefit of the fungi's structure is quite unique. The cup shape is actually the fruiting body of the fungus and it holds the peridioles that contain the spores for reproduction. While other fungi depend on wind and animals for disperseal, the bird's nest fungi catches rain in its little cup. The impact of even just one raindrop hitting the cup makes a splash, ejecting/launching the periodioles 3-4 feet into the air. The peridiole has a sticky membrane which catches onto whatever is nearby (hopefully into hospitable terrain). Once the peridiole dries, it releases the spore.
DeleteGreat you learned about salmonberries - now you can snack and hike. :)
ReplyDelete