Plant Adaptations

Plant Adaptations Hr 8 +Bio 3

Venus Fly Trap By: Alex Motley & Sophia Baik http://www.botany.org/bsa/misc/carn.html

Rapid Response • A rapid response is not a tropism because it doesn’t involve growth. • A rapid response is a response to a plants environment (ie. light and touch) that takes place quickly and doesn’t involve growth. • Information from textbook

How the Fly Trap Works • The insect triggers sensory hairs inside the fly traps leaf causing the leaf to close. • The hairs cause the leaf to close by sending electrical signals to other cells resulting in a change in osmotic pressure and cell wall expansion, so the leaf snaps shut. • Information from textbook • Click Here for a movie of the Venus Fly Trap Closing

Bamboo Reproduction

Reproduction by rhizomes • Bamboo does not reproduce through seeds, meaning they reproduce through vegetative reproduction. Bamboo reproduces by growing stalks from an underground rhizome. Rhizome

Sometimes many stalks can be packed tightly together on a single rhizome, and it would be considered a single bamboo plant. • Because of this bamboo is one of the fastest growing plant on earth. http://www.bambubrasileiro.com/info/plantio/i1.html

Bishop Pine (Dormancy) Nalini & Angela

Dormancy • Bishop Pines uses fire to regenerate itself. • Since their seeds are protected tightly, they need heat to expose. • When a fire burns a mature stand, the existing trees are killed, but the seeds released from their cones sprout quickly on the freshly exposed soil.

Dormancy Cont. • This allows the seeds to grow in a larger area and larger species. • Bishop pine is highly flammable, and rarely survives a fire. • They makeup for this because their seeds germinate by fire or heat. http://www.nps.gov/pore/parkmgmt/upload/firemanagement_visionfire_trailguide.pdf

Cypress Trees Aquatic Adaptations By: Alexis Eacret Victoria Kopecky

Aquatic Adaptations • Buttress Trunks- tress are wide and swollen • This helps hold the tree up in soggy soil

“Knees”- special roots that stick up out of the water These are organs that connect the root to the air Continued… http://dcm2.enr.state.nc.us/wetlands/Coastal_Explorers/cpfmodule/swamp/swamp_plants1.htm

Ethylene Gas By: Alice Kofman and Adam Lawrence

Ethylene Gas • Odorless, colorless gas that exists in nature and is also created by man-made sources • the largest producers are plant and plant products which produce ethylene within their tissues and release it into the surrounding atmosphere • Controls the ripening and decay of fruit. • Some people put fruit in brown paper bags, as ethylene gas builds up and quickens the process of ripening • Fruits, vegetables and flowers contain receptors which serve as bonding sites to absorb free atmospheric ethylene molecules • http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel5%2F5162127%2F5162128%2F05163662.pdf%3Farnumber%3D5163662&authDecision=-203

Peaches • Split-pit fruits such as peaches produce a great amount of ethylene gas, which is what initially causes fruits to ripen or decay. • Since they have more ethylene, they ripen faster. • It is important not to store fruits that produce ethylene gastogether http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ethylene-Gas.htm

Joe and Ishani Maple leaves

Abscission • End of summer, Phytochrome in leaves absorbs less light as days shorten and nights become longer. • Chemical pathways for chlorophyll synthesis stops first. When light destroys the remaining green pigment and other pigments like yellow and orange appear. • Glucose is trapped inside the leaves after photosynthesis stop. Sunlight and cool nights cause leaves to turn into a red color. • Sugars, amino acids, and minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are transported from the leaves to woody tissue. • Chlorophyll is broken down which leave behind an orange and yellow pigment. • Leaf abscission is controlled by a complex system of hormones, responding to lower temperatures and light intensity and to shoter day length.

Winter dormancy • Enters dormant state • Tree leaves fall off and the stem will turn brown • To “winterize” your maple, fertilize around the root zone in mid-fall, and saturate the roots before the ground freezes.

Works cited • Pictures: http://www.desktoprating.com/wallpapers/nature-wallpapers-pictures/fall-of-autumn-leaves-wallpaper.jpg • http://bio.bd.psu.edu/plant_web/Aceraceae/Sugar_Maple_03a_Leaf.jpg • Information: • http://www.butler.edu/herbarium/fallcolor/leaveschange.htm

Joe and Ishani Maple leaves

Abscission • End of summer, Phytochrome in leaves absorbs less light as days shorten and nights become longer. • Chemical pathways for chlorophyll synthesis stops first. When light destroys the remaining green pigment and other pigments like yellow and orange appear. • Glucose is trapped inside the leaves after photosynthesis stop. Sunlight and cool nights cause leaves to turn into a red color. • Sugars, amino acids, and minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are transported from the leaves to woody tissue. • Chlorophyll is broken down which leave behind an orange and yellow pigment. • Leaf abscission is controlled by a complex system of hormones, responding to lower temperatures and light intensity and to shoter day length.

Winter dormancy • Enters dormant state • Tree leaves fall off and the stem will turn brown • To “winterize” your maple, fertilize around the root zone in mid-fall, and saturate the roots before the ground freezes.

Works cited • Pictures: http://www.desktoprating.com/wallpapers/nature-wallpapers-pictures/fall-of-autumn-leaves-wallpaper.jpg • http://bio.bd.psu.edu/plant_web/Aceraceae/Sugar_Maple_03a_Leaf.jpg • Information: • http://www.butler.edu/herbarium/fallcolor/leaveschange.htm

Mistletoe By: Winnie Truong and Rachel Yeom

Mistletoe-parasite • Mistletoe plants grow on a wide range of host trees, and commonly reduce their growth but can kill them with heavy infestation by sending out their roots. • Almost all mistletoes are hemi-parasites, bearing evergreen leaves that do some photosynthesis, and using the host mainly for water and mineral nutrients.

Mistletoes take root in old, mature trees weakening them by sucking their food and water. When their berries ripen they explode shooting out seeds to distances 50 feet. Seeds that land on young trees and germinate will steal nutrients from the saplings.

Bibliography • http://riversaredamp.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/mistletoe.jpg • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistletoe • http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1220_021226_mistletoe.html

Poison Ivy- Thigmotropism Spencer Cioci Becca Schulte

Thigmotropism • Thigmotropism is a type of tropism where a plant responds to touch. • The degree of change that a plant has with respect to thigmotropism varies depending on the plant. • Some plant have a severe change due to touch but others don’t. Biology Book

Poison Ivy and Thigmotropism • Unlike normal plants, poison ivy grows sideways and twists in circles as it grows. • It will grow like this until it touches an object. • Then it grabs onto the object and wraps around it as it grows. Biology Book

Seedless Oranges YuM!! By Jansen Baja and Dhru Dave

Are made so there is no genetic variation made with seeds so they can make a perfect copy every time

Plant propagation • In plant propagation horticulturists use cuttings, grafting, or budding to make many identical copies of a plant or to produce offspring from seedless plants • Grafting is used with fruit trees where a branch from one tree is cut and attached to another fruit tree. When done at the right time when sap is running high the graft will easily grow onto the parent tree using the tree as a source of nutrition • Book and http://www.wisegeek.com/how-are-seedless-fruits-and-vegetables-grown.htm

Strawberry and Stolons Thuy and Naishadh

Vegetative Reproduction • The terminal buds of these runners (stolons) turn up and produce daughter plants some distance away from the parent, the new plants developing adventitious roots http://www.biology-resources.com/documents/plants-vr-08-runners.doc http://www.life.illinois.edu/help/digitalflowers/picts/Vegetative/24-%20Strawberry%20stolons.jpg

Cont. • Known also as vegetative propagation or vegetative cloning, strawberries grow new plants without producing seeds or spores. • What people think of as strawberry seeds that cover the berry are not in fact their primary means of propagation. • One reason to grow from seed is if you want a non-hybridized or heirloom varietal of strawberry or if you are not in any hurry to produce a crop in the immediate season http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4911394_strawberry-plants-reproduce.html

TobaccoBy: Tess Dobkin and Jeff Bonin • Nicotine from tobacco is extremely toxic to insects • Nonhazardous due to it short persistence • Effective against ground and soil pests such as root aphids, as well as leaf-chewing insects • Tobacco teas sometimes prepared by home gardeners to control garden pests • Any nicotine solution toxic enough to kill insects can also be harmful to humans • Auxins cause Phototropism, tendency to bend toward light • Source: http://www.canadiancountrywoman.com/garden/bugrecipes.php

Petals Source: http://corditecountryshownotes.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/tobacco-nicotiana-tabacum.jpg

Plant Adaptations