Bio 213 Field Trip Individual Post by: Lisa Merritt

Lisa Merritt

Bio 213 -Fungi Field Trip Post

I learned so much and enjoyed this field trip! As I had mentioned at the beginning of the field trip I grew up in a large city and the only exposure to plants was Central Park or Summer Camp. I also lived in North Carolina but never much looked at plants except on a superficial level. The most interesting thing that I learned is that one plant in one location can have a relationship with another in a farther off location. I also thought the hard mushrooms we saw were fascinating I had never seen hard mushrooms before. Carina called them Conk mushrooms. After further research they are called Bracket fungus and they are basidiomycetes. Bracket fungi are sturdy and tough. They produce basidiospores that make up the undersurface. The brackets grown can be a single row of a few caps to dozens of rows that can weigh several hundred pounds. They typically live on the side of trees and logs that are living or dead. Some can be parasitic, some saprotrophic, some both. The most common are the Ganoderma who play a part in tree death and then may feed off the trees wood for years after.  Some form perennially and some form annually.

Figure 1: Image of bracket fungus.

Figure 2: An image of another type pf bracket fungus seen on the field trip

Another interesting point was the fact we always learn about telling an age of a tree by its rings. However, I never knew what contributed to it that there are actually different layers to a tree. The very outer layer is the outer bark that protects the tree from insects and provides insulation from hot and cold temperatures. The phloem carries sugars from the leaves to the rest of the parts of the trees and the sapwood carries nutrients from the roots to the leaves. When theses cells die they become part of the outer bark. The dead wood in the center of the tree is the deadwood and gives the tree its strength  The cambium is how we can find the age of the tree. The growing part of the tree is the cambium, which manufactures new phloem and sapwood the slower growth produces the annual rings. Also, the study of dating trees is called Dendrochronology.

I am not being disingenuous when I say that this post really could have been five pages easy to include everything that I learned. I found this field trip more fascinating than any slide we have seen in lab. I have a fairly large yard and wilderness around my house and I have found myself wondering what kind of plants are in the yard and trying to look them up and boring my husband with the details. I would definitely suggest this field trip for future biology students. Who knows someone may find it interesting and consider an education and career in the field. Attached below are the pictures I took as well. Sorry I am the worst picture take ever and some are blurry. Enjoy!

Figure 3: Different kinds of lichen living in close proximity

Figure 4: Fungus living on top of ar tree trunk

Figure 5: A different type of fungus on a tree

Figure 6: picture of a tree with a parasitic fungus

Figure 7: Picture of a tree diseased with a fungus. The white substance is the tree bleeding in order to try and expel infecting substances.

Figure 8: A close up picture of mushroom gills of an Amanita panthera.

Figure 9: Image of the Amanita muscaria

Figure 10: Diagram of parts of a tree bark.