Tues 1: The Observation of Plants in Mount Royal's Journal

The fungi I am going to present are polypores, more specifically Litlle Nested Polypores as this is the specie that I observed. Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores on the underside. We can find most polypores living on tree trunks or branches, consuming the wood. As they consume the wood, they are one of the most important agents of wood decay, and therefore play a crucial role in the nutrient cycle and also the carbon dioxide production of forest ecosystems.

1) A unique observation about Burdocks- Genus Arcitium is that the spine like burrs hooks onto any unsuspecting person i.e animal fur or a person's clothing which will fall off somewhere else leading the seeds away from the parent plant and spread to new locations. The plant also prefers sunny or partial shade environments.

2) Determining a common adaptation for all my observed flora is rather hard to do since they are all so different but the most common were leaf size and stems that store food, moisture and energy before the cold climate starts so that they won't have to wait for the soil to thaw and grow back in the spring.

3) The phylogeny placement of the commonly known plant Burdock is part of the family Asteraceae which consists of 32,000 flowering plants. Burdocks are native to europe and asia with various species also found around the world.

1/ Considering the phylogeny placement, the plant that I identified to be part of the group "Hypochaeridinae", is located at the end of a branch, with 232 species following. It is also a member of larger groups which are (from smallest to largest) : cichoirioideae, asterids, eudicotyledons, plants, and finally eucaryotes.

2/ Because of the wide range of diversity between the different organisms that we observed, I can find one adaptation common to all of our observations, which is the presence of leaves.

3/ One unique adaptation for one of my obsevations, is the toxicity of the "bittersweet nightshade", which permits for the plant to protect itself.