Today, our seventh day of class, consisted mostly of the beginning of our group projects. So, after a morning of writing our pedagogy outlines and a lovely reading facilitation on seeds (and, as I found, things often mistaken for seeds) our group took a little trip out to BHW in search of our black gum tree, which proved to be a wee bit more elusive than you'd think a stationary object could be...
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| Our black gum tree and the lovely pile of porcupine scat surrounding the base. |
After a small amount of bushwhacking, we finally learned how to use our gps properly, and in so doing we found our tree! We set out the main plot that will serve as the outermost boundary (for the most part) of our project as we look at the black gum itself and the surrounding forest community. We quickly came to realize that we might have undertaken a little bit more work than what we initially intended, as in the hour that we spent at our site we found many different features and characteristics to be noted!
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| Witches'-broom! |
"Witches'-broom: symptom of plant disease that occurs as an abnormal brushlike cluster of dwarfed, weak shoots arising at or near the same point; twigs and branches of woody plants may die back. There are numerous causes, including rust (Gymnosporangium and Pucciniastrum); Apiosporina, Exobasidium, and Taphrina fungi; mites; insects; viruses; mycroplasmas; bacteria; and mistletoes. Susceptible plants include alder, alfalfa, Amelanchier, birch, California buckeye, Chamaecyparis, cherry, cherry laurel, elm, fir, hackberry, Holodiscus (ocean spray), honey locust, juniper and red-cedar, manzanita, mountain heath, mulberry, oak, potato, rhododendron, rose, sophora, spruce, and strawberry."
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| Witches'-broom! |
We also found a little newt friend just scampering around the edge of our plot! (For information on this little buddy and his friends -
http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Wildlife/Nongame/salamanders/east-redspot_newt.htm)
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| An Eastern/Red-spotted Newt that we found in our plot! |
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