UW Greenhouse - Fungi

Lat.: 47.652349451369396 Lon.: -122.31024686535949
Day, 2012
5/10/12
2:00-3:30

Today we went to the Botany Greenhouse and learned about various fungi. We started off with powdery mildew. This was seen on an ornamental maple tree as well as a cucumber plant. Powdery mildew look like someone dusted white powder onto the leaves of these plants. Interestingly, the tiny dots that make up the white powder are actually piles of little spores. These spores can be broken off and therefore spread easily to other vulnerable plants.

They had a Dracula orchid out at the greenhouse. This is such a beautiful plant. It was in an open pot so the Dracula orchids were hanging there next to the roots. The orchid looks like it has two leaves that open like a mouth. Inside there is a small white flower with structures that resemble gills. This is in order for it to attract gnats that pollinate it. The gnats are attracted to the mushroom-looking structure of the “gills.”

On this tour, we talked a bit about lichens. They are pollution sensitive which is why they aren’t found as much here in the city. However, they can colonize on bare rock and therefore make it more suitable for other living things. We saw an example of this right outside of the greenhouse where a small bunch of Caloplaca (a lichen genus) were located on the side of a cement wall.

Species List:
Cucumber
Powdery Mildew
Genus Caloplaca
Dracula orchid

Publicado el junio 5, 2012 05:48 MAÑANA por lisad22