Organisms of the (Holi-) day

Plants of the Day

 Lecture 1 Exam

 Lecture 2 Exam

 Lecture 3 Exam

 Halloween Bot-Costumes

Images of "plants of the day" mentioned in lecture will be added here as they are covered in lecture. Extra credit will be provided for solving the question given for each plant (questions will be on the lecture exams).

 

Lecture 1 plants

What is the largest herbarium in the United States?

How many plant specimens does it contain?

 

At least ten new species have been named after characters in Star Wars

What was the latest species named (hint: after this character)?

 

Which kind demanded 3,000 pounds of pepper as part of the ransom when besieging what city?

 

Lecture 2 plants

 holoparasite

?

 

What holo-parasitic family is possibly now included in the order Saxifragales?

 

Photo by Faisal I. Al-Dossary

 

 

The common wood violet (Viola sororia) was voted in as the Wisconsin state flower on Arbor Day, 1908, by Wisconsin school children.

At least three other species were defeated (unfortunately) in close voting - name one of them.

 

Photo by R. W. Smith [http://michiganflora.net/species.aspx?id=2798]

 

 

Tilia europea - European basswood, lime tree, linden, or lin

The names "lin" (the European basswood tree) and "Carl Linne" or "Carolus Linnaeus" appear to be derived from the same root word. What is the story connecting these two names? The Swedish church by the lin tree is a hint, and involves an ancestor of Linnaeus.

 

Lecture 3 plants

 white snakerook

Ageratina altissima = Eupatorium rugosum

Asteraceae

white snakeroot

As the common name might suggest, this plant is highly poisonous. Humans typically are poisoned by drinking milk from cattle eating the plants. What famous person associated with a U.S. President is thought to have died from snakeroot?

 

 

http://www.missouriplants.com/Whiteopp/

Eupatorium_rugosum_plant.jpg

Organisms of the (Holi-) day

Which two of these organisms do not fit on this list - and why?

Vaccinium macrocarpon, Meleagris gallopavo, Taxidea taxus, Cucurbita maxima, Gulo gulo, Dioscorea batatas
thanksgiving
 

C4 evolution in Angiosperms

C4 photosynthesis has evolved 62 times in Angiosperms and 24 times just in the grass family

 

Name one of the other two families with many C4 species

 

[Sage et al. 2011, J Exp Bot]

 

Halloween Plant Costumes by Botany 400 Students

 

Musa X paradisiaca Anomodon vitisculosus Helianthus annuus
Lilium asiatica Thuja occidentalis Asarum canadense
Cucurbita pepo 2 Welwitschia mirabilis Cannabis sativa
Pterospora andromeda Humulus & Triticum Strelitzia reginae
Lygodium palmatum Ananas comosus Daucus carota
Toxicodendron radicans
This could be you!
 Carnegiea gigantea

 

Halloween Plant Costumes by other Crazy Botanists

Dan Nickrent

 Sarracenia

Papyrus