Blog #6 - Pine Ridge Park: Elijah, Shannon, and Katherine

On our trip to Pine Ridge park on Friday, the weather was pretty nice, it was sunny and the ground was dry for the most part but it was fairly cold due to being in the shade of the trees and the breeze that was going on. The location we visited was pretty forested, there were hills, ponds and plenty of plant life throughout the park. One of the very first organisms we studied was the big leaf maple tree, also known as Acer macrophyllum. This tree was one of the first organisms we saw coming into the park, being located right in the parking lot. Big leaf maple trees have giant leaves that were bright yellow so it caught my attention right away. This tree also stood out because instead of having one big trunk it looked as if it had multiple smaller ones growing out of the ground. The second organism that we identified was English holly (Ilex aquifolium) this was located very close to the front of the trail surrounded it appeared to be growing among a couple ferns, there were no berries on it at the time but the pointy leaves were a distinct indicator as to what kind of plant it was that we were observing. Lastly we found a group of small, yellowish brown mushrooms growing on the side of a fallen tree branch, this group of mushrooms stood out because they were some of the only mushrooms that we noticed growing in a group and they were also growing on another object instead of growing out of the ground.