faithbawden's Journal

The Dryad’s Saddle is a very common mushroom found at the bottom of the dead tree trunks. They stick out of the trunk like shelves and they are edible, although it’s leathery texture makes it difficult to use in the kitchen. The Dryad’s Saddle can grow anywhere from 10 to 60cm in diameter, and has the ability to get 5cm thick! This is a huge mushroom! These mushroom are typically found in April and May, but have been known to fruit later in the year, such as this one. It has whiteish yellow spores and are generally semi-circular with a convex top that becomes flat. This is a very interesting mushroom that caught my eye right away in the woods because of it’s size!

1. The Silver Maple is a rapidly growing, tall tree, native to eastern North America. The silver maple lives within the plantae kingdom. It's order is sapindales and it's in the sapindacaee family. The genus of the silver maple is acer, and it is an A. saccharine specie.
2. One adaptation that I have seen for all of the species I observed is the act of adapting to where adequate moisture resides. Some, over the years, have moved to more wet regions, whereas others have adapted by using their roots underground too efficiently collect as much moisture as possible to keep the plant alive.
3. One unique adaptation that I found was that of Begonias. Begonias have adapted to grow specific colours, like blue, in order to photosynthesize more efficiently in low-light conditions.