Fungus Walk

On Friday Nov. 16 our Biology class went for a walk in the park to see if we could find any fungi or lichens to observe.  For the past week we had been studying the different kinds of fungi and lichens and seeing them in real life made them easier to identify.  On our walk we saw fungi from the Basidiomycota phylum (club fungi) like jelly fungi, mushrooms, shelf fungus and coral fungus.  In class we had also learned about water molds from the Oomycota phylum, common molds from the Zygomycota phylum, sac fungi form the Ascomycota phylum and imperfect fungi form the Deuteromycota phylum.  Seeing these fungus in real life gave us a better idea of what all the structures on the fungus looked like, for example on the mushrooms we could easily see the reproductive structure and the spore containing structures in the cap.  In class we also learned that fungi are some of the major decomposers in the world and on our walk we saw that this was true.  There were fungus growing on most of the rotting tree stumps and plants that we saw.  In addition to fungus we also saw lichens growing on the trees and plants in the forest.  In class we learned that lichens have a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and photosynthetic organism such as green algae. Lichens come in three forms; Crustose, Foliose and Fruiticose.  On our walk we saw all three types of lichens.  We also learned that lichens are important for creating soil in barren environments.  Seeing these lichens and fungus in the park helped me link the facts we had learned about them to examples of what they look like; therefore, it was very helpful.

Some colourful shelf fungus growing on a tree

Lots of small shelf or bracket fungi

A large mushroom cap with a piece taken off

A coral fungus growing on the ground

Shelf fungus

Some lichens growing on the side of a tree

Some mushrooms growing out of a decaying log

Mushrooms surrounded by decaying matter