floresak's Journal

Today, I went to Houghton Garden and walked around the trial for approximately 40 minutes in total. There was a mid-seventies weather and there was not much wind. The sun was vibrant and shining without clouds blinding its sight. At the beginning of my walk, I saw a few vertical wood-like roots that had thin, forked branches where simple, small brown leaves grew in what appeared to be a circling motion around the branch. This plant had a few spider webs in it. Then, I found tall, vertical plants with wide leaves that seemed to have a circular shape. The plant itself had long stems appeared to rise in order to get sunlight. I had the chance to observe various plants along the trial that had flowers with white, thin, long petals and light brownish flower heads that were found superior to the petals and had a starry-like shape. After a few minutes, I came across a plant in which its stem was green and had leaves branching off in a zig zag pattern on from the stem and from the middle of the leaf the venation patterns were diagonal. These leaves were green, relatively big in size and long from the stem to the tip of the leaf. Nearby, I encountered a plant that had green heart shaped leaves with a curved venation pattern. The edges of the leaf had zig zagged shaped indentations that made the leaves have triangular-like tips. I, then, came across a few plants with a red stem that had long, relatively big, narrow leaves with curved venation that extended from the top of the stem and were positioned in such a way where a yellow seed was found in between the leaves that were surrounding it. Later on, I found a plant with bright, glossy green leaves that turned yellowish towards the center. This plant had a few circular white clumps of flowers growing around the stem that was mostly found on top of where the leaves were branching. As I kept walking, I encountered a plant that was a bright, light green color and it had a stem with lots of branches that branched out diagonally. I found this color and shape to be very peculiar as I had not seen anything like it before, especially in this garden. I also saw a plant with green leaves on the inferior and purple leaves on the superior part that had curved venation and had slightly curved edges. Then, I saw some small plants with light green leaves that were small and curved with a tip. There was a thin green stem that elevated from which a small pink flower rose, which looked like a clump of light pink cotton at first glance. Finally before leaving the trial, I encountered a plant with big, long, elliptic shaped leaves with a curved venation and slight indentations along the edges. This plant had small, thin light green stem that had small, circular like flowering branching out. Overall, I encountered a variety of different plants, some of which were very interesting to observe.

I made my way to Houghton Park at midday yesterday and the weather was quite nice as there was not much breeze. The sun was out but the sky was a little bit cloudy. During my thirty minute walk since I entered the park, I found several different types of fungi of with different morphologies (different shapes, sizes, and colors) on the trail surrounded by twigs and dried up fallen leaves. Many of these mushrooms had plants starting to grow next to them while others were found next to the trunk of trees. The first fungi I encountered was a small fungi with a white thin stem and a flat circular-like red superior surface that had two big white dots. Next to it was a white mushroom that was upside down with a narrower stem and a sphere like top. As I continued my walk I saw bigger fungi that had bean like flat surface that was quite thick. This fungi was isolated. The superior part of the surface was a warnoff maroon like color and it had an indent towards the inside. The side of the fungi was white and it was particular because its texture looked like if the pieces were sliced making various lines across the border. Nearby, I found five similar fungi next to one another with their thin white stem and reddish top surface. The next two fungi I found afterwards were quite impressive to me as I had never seen anything like it before. After a few minutes of walking, I encountered a different type of fungi that called my attention as it was completely white and it had a linear pattern that formed a cone like figure that united on a circular area found in the bottom. Then, I found myself upon what appeared to be a sponge-like figure. When I looked closely, it had white, almost yellow, stems that rose upward and were a bit tangled and growing on top of each other. I continued walking through the trail and I saw an area with several fungi together that varied in size since some were smaller than other. These had a white thin stem and a bonish-white sort of beige color circular top that had a small indent where the stem touched the top portion. Later, I encountered a medium sized fungi that had a thick stem and a beige color. As I continued the trail, I saw two different types of fungi that were close to one another. One of these types had a total of four fungi whose orange colored stems were growing touching one another and their beige like circular top surface were one on top of the other slightly tilted depending on the size of the mushroom. Right next to these four fungi was a different type of fungi that looked to have a harder texture and it had a bowl like shape that was whit with some green areas and an orange stem. The bottom part of the bowl like surface of the fungi had a linear texture similar to an engraving. The next mushroom I encountered was isolated from any other mushroom and it looked just like the mushroom I observed prior to this one. Then, I encountered two types of fungi that were orange, which was a particular color to find as it differed the color of the rest of the fungi in the area, and their superior part had a dome shape. This finding was quite interesting as the color itself was so bright differing to the darker soil of the trail. Following this observation, I continued my walk for another three minutes until I came across a weird looking fungi. It looked quite like a shell and it had a hard looking, white texture on the outside that had some shrivel like formations of layers that laid one on top of the other that had a beige color on the edges. On the visible inside, the color was a light brown color with a tint of red to it. Finally, before I finished the trail, I found two small fungi growing right next to one another that looked very similar to the second fungi I observed during my walk.

I went on a walk today on the Houghton Garden located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. When I arrived at the garden at around 12:30pm, the weather was quite nice; the sky was not cloudy and the sun was visible allowing sunlight to radiate through the leaves and branches of the multiple really tall trees. Some trees at the start of the trial were slim with not much rooting and extending out of the trunk's circumference. As I kept walking more into the trial, I noticed some trees that had wider trunks and bigger tree roots. In most of the trees in the garden, the moss was emerging along the bottom of the roots and some species of plants and fungi could be observed growing at close proximity of them. One type of fungi I encountered next to a trunk of a tree that had moss in it was small and it had a color gradient change that could be observed from a superior view that clearly changed from a pink almost white color along the edges of its circle like shape to red and got darker along the middle through the whole where its stem stands. Along the trail, there were many fallen leaves and pieces of bark and small logs in the dirt. In the garden itself, I found nature to be very calming. I encountered a small river during my walk and did not see any species in the water. As I proceeded, I saw approximately four squirrels in total. It was quite difficult to spot them because their brown fur color allowed them to adapt well to their surrounding environment, especially from possible predators or threats, and they were able to blend in with the colors observed in the tree trunks and dirt. I was able to spot some of them because I saw some movement on the ground farther down the trail or because I heard some of the noises that they were making. When trying to gain a closer look at them, I noticed how the were really fast and I often times found myself trying to relocate them after they moved. I did, in fact, see two squirrels following and chasing each other as if they were fighting, which I thought was a quite interesting observation. I was surprised by the amount of fungi that I found when circulating the area of the garden. I did find something that was quite interesting to me as I had never seen anything like it in real life before. I was astonished to encounter a tree trunk that had a fungi species growing in its surface in different directions (diagonally, horizontally, vertically, and even upside down). I had never seen anything like this before as I had usually seen fungi growing on dirt. I began to hear a bird chirping as I continued to walk deeper into the walking trail of the garden. The sound began to get closer and up in the branches of one of the trees I saw a red bird that flew fast and moved from branch to branch on some of the different trees in the area. It was joyous hearing the birds in the area and the water that flowed from the river and the little cascade that surged as I proceeded my midday walk. After about 30 minutes of walking through the trial and heading my way back out, I encountered a plant species, which is classified by iNaturalist a a potential Knotweed, smartweed, and waterpepper, that were beginning to grow randomly in the dirt and did not have any other of its kind surrounding it, unlike other plants that surrounded the area. The leaves of this plant were light green and the plant was beginning to form a purple flower on top that was not yet fully developed. The stem itself was quite small in size too. This growth of the plant in isolation of others called my attention, especially as it was surrounded by small pieces of logs and tree bark. I think it was beautiful to observe how the growth of such a beautiful species in the middle of a dirt path brings a sense of life to the garden that I was fortunate enough to have observed.