Diario de lhills

Cerioporus squamosus, more commonly known as Dryad's saddle, is a poly-pore basidiomycete that is commonly found on rotting trees and logs. It is a type of bracket fungi, and is often the largest fungi specimen to be found during the spring. The name, Dryad's saddle, is derived from the unique shape of the fungi. This is because the fungi forms the shape similar to that of a saddle on a horse with sloping edges which meet in the middle. This observation was spotted on a live tree at the foot of Mont-Royal, a tree that is possibly in the earlier stages of rot. Throughout North America and Montreal, Dryad's saddle specimens have been found to prefer tree species' such as the silver maple, box elder, and the quaking aspen. The typical human usage for this fungi is cooking. It is often seen as a very underrated edible mushroom that is ripe with fiber. Although, it is best to pick specimens used for cooking while they are young, as they get older they become more and more tough and flavorful.

This observation of a Horse-Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) took place at the foot of Mont Royal in Montreal, QC. The specimen in question was located blooming from a crowded thicket along a winding walking path's embankment. The Horse-Chestnut, also referred to as "Aesculus hippocastanum" is a vascular plant most commonly related to today's Buckeye within the Sapindaceae family.

A common adaptation that the Horse-Chestnut shares with a majority of my observations is the wide compound leaves that provide an ample amount of surface area for the plant to efficiently perform photosynthesis. This is common for both the Horse-Chestnut and a majority of the other plants nestled around Mont Royal due to competition for sunlight due to taller trees and plants blocking a majority of the sunlight from the smaller bushes and plants along the forest floor.

One adaptation that is unique to the Horse-Chestnut from my observation is that the lower portion of the leaves are much more pale than the upper portion due to the amount of easy sunlight that the upper portion is able to absorb. This particular observation at the foot of Mont Royal is currently being affected by leaf blotch as shown by the rust-esque discoloration of the leaves. Although this is caused by an infection from the Phyllosticta paviae fungus, there is no serious damage done to the plant, the effects are merely esthetic.