The Between Earth And Extraterrestrial Plants

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

This experiment, which was used to explore the Theory of Evolution created by Charles Darwin. The use of natural selection was apparent in the artificial modification of an organism's traits which aided in this investigation. Through this experiment the Wisconsin Fast Plant was used. It is a fast-growing organism developed to improve the resistance to disease in cruciferous plants. This plant aids scientist in the exploration of environmental effects on population due to the speed to which is matures and reproduces. Artificial selection was stimulated by the selection against plants with few hairs(trichomes). Trichomes create a wider variation which means it is polygenic. The plants that had only a few trichomes were

From a diagram of an idealized flower, correctly label the following structures and describe the function of each structure:

Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s View of the World, addresses four major plant groups that have both changed for human needs and simultaneously changed human’s needs. While most gardeners, genetic engineers and other plant related professionals have long-believed that plants have evolved based on what we want or need to survive and in other words what we have “domesticated”, Pollan appeals to the plant’s view. Plants’ survival has been solely based on what humans desire both depending on their visual and stimulatory appeal along with their appeal to an appetite. Conversely, plants have used humans as a strategy for “getting us to move and think for them (page xx)”. Many plants have successfully maneuvered humans for

The plants that do survive and make it through these harsh conditions are then faced with even more struggles. The overgrazing of livestock and now more recently, the urbanization of many different areas have causes the plants that do survive, to be torn out (Winczura). These different factors created challenges for not only the Aztecs and modern day Mexicans who are trying to harvest and utilize plants for medicinal use.

Throughout this composition I intend to shed light onto the present day agricultural practices and the key natural components of this planet that support life and sustain biodiversity.

University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. E J H Corner, 2002. The Life of Plants. University of Chicago Press,

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.

In courts people can use animal and plant evidence to prove a case. They can use it in four different ways: as scientific evidence for resolution of court cases involving property dispute, fraud, and matters of legal responsibility or obligation. It could be used as scientific evidence in criminal cases offered to prove than an alleged crime has been committed. It can also be used in murder, accidental death or questioned death cases offered in connection with establishing the cause or time of death and offered in connection with identifying the perpetrator of a crime or establishing the location of the crime.

Ecology has been the study of different interactions amongst organisms with the abiotic environment (Pimm and Smith, 2007), examining how ecosystems have thrived upon these relations. Ecosystems have depended on the continued availability of energy supplied ultimately by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Plants have lived in association with each other from having occupied the same niche in nature (Khan and Hussain, 1999). Numerous plants have

Justice and forgiveness are often used in similar ways, except they are hypothetically opposites. Forgiveness is a term performed by someone when they are genuinely accepting an apology from someone who is sorry. Whether or not they accept that apology, is the simple thing that distinguishes justice from forgiveness. Although, justice and forgiveness do not go hand in hand. There are many other ways that these terms get interpreted incorrectly.

In this study, Plant A, which received twenty-four hours of artificial light every day, will reach the maximum height amongst all plants. Due to the maximum access of light, Plant A will therefore have the most access to energy, which is a vital source of food to the bean plant. With more energy available to the plant, photosynthesis can provide an abundance of food availability which will cause the plant to thrive more successfully.

In addition, biodiversity will be crucial for humanities continued survival in the case of climate change or widespread crop failures. The majority of people on earth are reliant on four crops for subsistence; wheat, rice, corn, and millet. (11) These crops are threatened by climate change and the spread of disease facilitated by modern transportation. If humanity is to survive such an eventuality it must be ready to draw upon the earth’s biodiversity for replacements. And while there are approximately 50 thousand plant species that could offer alternatives, this bank of resources is quickly thinning as various ecosystems are being destroyed. (11)

Humans depend on plants in numerous ways. One reason we depend on plants is for consumption. Plants have the unique ability of producing their own food through a process called photosynthesis. In this process, plants are able to produce macromolecules such as carbohydrates that cannot be produced in animals or humans. In humans, the only to gain these macromolecules is to consume plant matter, or consume plant-eating animals (herbivores).