Skip to main content

Naturalist Perspectives Assignment 1

Site Alpha
Location: 16 Berkeley St in Cambridge, MA
Date: 3/26/2017
Time: 5pm
Weather: Dreary and overcast. It had rained, but not a downpour.

I established a 6 foot transect using a piece of purple yarn. It was a fairly groomed area overall, not exactly deep forest. There was a base layer of mulch that looked like it had not been put down recently. There were still some patches of snow, but it was mostly melted. The earth looked saturated but was not muddy. Everything smelled wet. I selected four areas along the transect.

The first area (pictured below) had a cool looking plant that seemed sort of trampled - probably from the weight of snow. The stem of the plant looked kind of like ginger (which I know is a root), but I assume it isn't a root because of all the leaves. The leaves are a vibrant light green. They look new and springtime-y. The veins of the leaf are visible. Each leaf is shaped like the end of a kayak paddle. There were also a bunch of leaves not attached to the plant, just tangled in the base and on the ground underneath it. These leaves were large, brown and paper-y. My deduction is that they were dead leaves from a tree nearby. underneath and around the plant is some grass. It is long, and a mix of yellow and green.
Area 1:


The second area (pictured below) also had a layer of mulch and wet, dead, tree leaves coating the ground. There was a different, smaller shrub looking thing there. The leaves were small and spike-y, sort of like very close together barbed wires. They were darker green than the other plant. There were some yellow leaves mixed in with the dark ones.
Area 2:


The final area (pictured below) had a small shrub looking thing, similar to the prior one but not the same. The leaves were more concentrated at the end of the stalks. The leaves were also longer and looked softer and more brush-like. There was a substantially larger bush (small tree?) thing nearby. It seemed very much alive. The leaves were a vibrant deep green, though the tips were yellowing a little and edged with brown at the very end. the leaves on the bush thing were thicker than any of the other vegetation. They were also more obviously hydrophobic. They felt waxy and in the picture (below) you can see water beading on one of the leaves.
Area 3:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Naturalist Perspectives: Invasive Species

Location: 29 Harrison St, Newton, MA Date: 4/23/2017 Time: 2:00 PM Weather: Sunny with some cloud cover. 54℉. If you look in the background of this  picture, you will see a large yellow mass covered in flowers. This plant is called the forsythia tree and it is an invasive species that can be found here and in my hometown of Armonk, N.Y.. It can be recognized by its lack of leaves, rounded overall shape, and vibrant yellow flower. Forsythia are described as colonizing plants. They are native to Asia but will grow in almost any sunny location. It does not support insects or birds native to the Northeastern US in any way. Its roots have colonizing suckers that can push out other species of plant nearby and change the topography of a landscape. For this reason, they are often planted on hills (as pictured above). Over time, they can help level out the area. Many landscapers recommend replacing forsythia with spicebush, which can better support the other forms of life.

Naturalist Perspectives Assignment 8

Location: Site Alpha Date: 5/2/2017 Time: 2:00 PM Weather: Sunny and windy. 57℉. The plants at Site Alpha are growing more. Lots of little shoots of things are popping up. Some of the flowers are beginning to wilt. Location: Site Beta Date: 5/2/2017 Time: 6:00 PM Weather: Sun getting low, 54℉ I don't have a picture of this one because my phone died. There are now some tulips there, though and the trees are covered in flowers. There is a strong floral scent in the air, but I am not sure that it is coming from the flowers in this particular flower bed. 1. Evolution - The flowers here have been artificially selected. This has been done mostly based on aesthetic, smell, and ability to withstand the weather conditions of Cambridge. 2. Cell Biology - The cell structures in different parts of the plants correspond to the role they play in the overall life of the plant. Because they are plant cells, they contain chloroplasts, which enable the plant to photosynthesize- get...

Naturalist Perspectives Assignment 2

Site Alpha Location: 16 Berkeley St in Cambridge, MA Date: 4/2/2017 Time: 5pm Weather: Decent. Sunny. 55°F There were no dramatic changes in the specific area where I did the transect last time. There was less snow and fewer dead leaves. My guess about the reason the plants looked droopy (they had been tamped down by the snow) seems to have been false. The plants still looked like they had been flattened. They seemed a little less brown, but I forgot my phone so I could not compare it to the pictures I had taken for the first post. A few feet away from the specific tract where I did my initial transect, there was dramatic growth. There were crocus shoots popping up and some tiny succulent that I think looks kind of like a cabbage but also sort of a succulent rose type thing. It definitely is not a cabbage, and I don't think it is a rose, but I cannot seem to figure out what it actually is. There was also some ivy growing on the ground. Properties of life evident at Site Al...