Fungi Field Trip by Tyler Klaudt

Tyler Klaudt's thoughts on the fungi field trip!

Overall I really enjoyed this field trip. It was nice to get out of the classroom and actually explore and see things not just from the view of slides. I know I remembered the things she said much better because I was able to touch, feel, and search for the items she talked about.

This an example of a fungi eating way at the bark of the tree. The black spot in particular.

My favorite part of the field trip was the information on the pathogenic fungi. Not because I like that it kills trees but that you can use it to see the health of the forest and tree as a hole. 

Here is a picture of one of the examples she gives us.

She told us that the virus gets in through the root tips. For the previous picture trees will actually "bleed" sap to get the bad fungi out of its bark.

Another thing find it really cool as the way fungi can compose old trees and logs. The next pictures are I'm going to show are a look inside a stump that is being decomposed by fungi.

Inside view of a log

Side view of a log. The white part is what is being decomposed.

After she was explaining what we are looking at I went off on my own and decided to find my own mushroom. 

Here is what I found hidden behind a log

Mushroom found by yours truly.

The thing I learned that was most interesting is that mushroom have mycelium that are actually connected all over the forest and could be connected across the whole length of the forest. If a problem happens on one side of the forest, the mycelium can send messages for the other side to harden up and get ready. I think their communication skills are pretty amazing.

We also went by a pond and naturally I had to take a picture, but a family was in the way. Instead of waiting I decided to take a family photo and I think if they would have seen it, it would up as their Christmas card. 

Picture of a family that looks like it would be found on google images.

All and all it was a really fun field trip and I would definitely suggest to keep doing it with future classes and maybe plan more for us. Im more of a hands on learner.

Thanks!