Angiosperms and Gymnosperms

2) Why are onion root tip and whitefish blastula areas that are ideal to view mitosis?

In the novel, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan tells the intriguing story of how plants are domesticated from the perspective of the plant with regards to four specific plants.. The four plants he chose for discussion are the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. As he discusses the domestication of these plants, his overall focus is the desire that each of these plants have to us as humans. Pollan has written books and magazine articles among other pieces of literature that discuss the relationship between plants and humans. Throughout this informational text, Pollan tries to keep the perspective from the “plant’s-eye view of the world,” but he often slips into Pollan’s eye view of the world. As he talks about experiences that he has had with each of these plants and gives a little bit of their history, it was often hard to stay focused on the topic that he was trying to convey. However, I found that the perspectives that Pollan brings up are interesting to think about. The Botany of Desire was an interesting journal type informational novel that didn’t quite live up to my expectations of what it could have been.

Plants are found everywhere on earth, up high on the ridge and down low in caves and caverns. The types of plants that live in these places depends on many factors. These factors are separated into two different categories, the biotic factors and the abiotic factors. Some of the biotic factors include, predation, competition, and habitat destruction. Plants with limited competition and large amounts of resources will be in a higher abundance than plants with limited resources and higher competition rates will be confined to areas and either out competed or will be the dominant species. Certain plants adapt to these factors and thrive and others don’t do as well. Some of the abiotic factors include, sunlight, water, temperature, and wind. These

Next, take cuttings using pruners from each assigned plant and insert them in their designated area. For the Ficus, Japanese boxwood, Swedish Ivy, and Autumn Sage take one tip and one stem cutting. Each of these cuttings should be long enough to where there are four nodes present, two above the soil and two below. For the Mouse Ear Jew and the Wandering Traveler make two tip and two stem cuttings. To test the significance of polarity, take four tip cuttings from the Snake Plant, first cut one large cutting then make four V shaped cuts into it, two with tips up and two with tips down. Also to test polarity, take two cuttings from the Umbrella Palm, take two cuttings that both still have the tips on them. Take the leaves off the top and place in soil upside down for reverse polarity and one right side up for positive polarity. For the Peperomia, simply take one leave cutting and put the petiole below the soil. Next, the Mother of Thousands calls for one plantlet and one leaf cutting. Take these and place in the soil. For the Jade plant take one leaf and one stem cutting. The stem needs to have four nodes available, two above and two below. For the leaf cutting make sure it is planted about halfway into the soil. After these cuttings have been planted, put in a stake with a name on it to separate each individual’s plants.

Round seeds (R) are dominant to wrinkled seeds (r), and yellow seeds (Y) are dominant

In general terms, explain how the basic plant life cycle with alternation of generations is modified in angiosperms.

Identify features of flowers of native species of angiosperms that may be adaptations for wind, insect, bird and mammal pollination.

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen uses examples of four plants including the apple ,tulip, marijuana, and the potato, to describe evolution and how mankind works to help plants reproduce. We are a slave to things of sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. These four things are described by the different plant chapters in the book. We as people are driven to these kind of things because of the product we get, we subconsciously are working to make these plants more fit and therefore helping in their reproduction and evolution. With each plant chapter Pollen goes into depth about its contribution to the world and history behind the plant within human evolution. By using the examples he provides in the book helps demonstrate the ideas of how these plants contribute to the human body systems, evolution and ecology. To further explain these topics I chose to explore the apple, tulip and cannabis plants.

To observe mitosis in onion root tip cells and record the different phases of mitosis.

However, the claim of finding and harvesting the extinct seeds in a clay vessel is false. Through expert consultation with David Wrone, it was revealed that the seeds were never extinct to have been discovered in the first place. Rather, the seeds planted by the university students were received from the White Earth Seed Library. By contrasting MyModernMet’s article to a peer-reviewed paper, it revealed the lack of significant information in MyModernMet’s article, thereby decreasing its credibility. Furthermore, scientific literature on seed expiration and preservation decreased significantly the likelihood of harvesting the seeds claimed in the story. By discrediting the two major claims in MyModernMet’s article, it can be concluded the 800-year-old seeds found and harvested had never existed. In spite of this, the article does show the importance of seed preservation in our heritage, as a cultural practice, and as a means to preserve plant

Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity by Jonathan Silvertown is a scientific, nonfiction book that reads a lot like a botanist’s travel journal. It showcases many plant species’ habitats; such as the desert-like climate of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands and the Kew Gardens in London, when explaining the evolution of plants. However, according to Silvertown (2005), a paradox arises in Darwin’s argument when trying to explain a plant’s evolutionary processes. Darwin’s argument states that organisms that have the most progeny are favored by natural selection. The progeny, adapting their parent’s advantages, will start to reproduce more and more advantageous characteristics until other organisms dwindle to extinction.

Making the onion tip root cell slide was successful. Our results supported the hypothesis because we saw cells in the onion root tip in prophase, metaphase, and anaphase. As we went up in power objectives, each phase of the cell became more definitive. The cell root was a great indicator of the structures of the different cycles of the cell. This is important because we will be prepared for future labs working with the microscopes and can now adjust it for the best view of the slide. We practiced working with the compound light microscopes and different phases of the cell cycle. Onion root tips are useful to observe mitosis because the cells are frequently diving as the root grows. So when we stained the cell, we caught many cells in different phases. The significance of this lab was to better understand the process and stages of mitosis and meiosis and compare and contrast the mitotic process in plants and animals. We grasped the concepts of what the chromosomes look like, and what they look like in each step of the processes. Having read much about mitosis and meiosis, seeing these cells was the real application of describing and understanding the stages.

pairs, and have a perianth which is tubular in the bud, with sepals that split at anthesis.

The abscission zone typically comprises a plate of thin walled, narrow cells which are differentiated clearly from the isodiametric cells of the pedicel. These cells begin the stage or a phase of intense activity immediately prior the start of physical separation of the abscising plant parts.

There are many different types of plant layouts, some of these types are as followed: