Part 3: Plant Terms

Question 1

What are the negative effects of purple loosestrife (Lythrum Salicaria)?

Answer 1

• Disrupts wetland ecosystems by displacing native plants and animals
• It is agressive and competitive and is a disturbance for vegetation
• This plant takes away an animals food source

Question 2

Does purple loosestife have the same negative effects in its native range? Why or why not?

Answer 2

• No, it does not because the species is more controlled in Europe where vegetation is not destroyed

Question 3

What methods have been used to control the species?

Answer 3

• Cutting them (not effective)
• Flooding them
• Fires
• Mowing
• Chemicals/Pesticides

Question 4

What is biocontrol? What advantage does it have?

Answer 4

• It is taking control of a non-native species by introducing another species that is a predator/parasite to attack it in its native environment

Question 5

ON EXAM: Describe the process of developing and testing bio control agents.

Answer 5

1. Identify pest species
2. Survey for natural enemies to attack the pest
3. Determine host specificity and impact on the targeted species and non targets for safety
4. Get approval from federal and state officials
5. Test the pest species and its attacking enemy to see if their are reduced densities of the pest species
6. Release the enemy for biological control and evaluate it over the long term

Question 6

How are insects used to control loosestrife?

Answer 6

• They can eat leaves on a plant to stunt its growth and reduce seed production
• Deposits eggs (larvae) into the stems of the plant to destroy a plants nutrient source

Question 7

What are shortcomings of biocontrol?

Answer 7

• The chosen predators to kill the pest may switch to a different target
• Its a slow process
• Involves a lot of planning and money
• No followup

Question 8

What are pollen cells/grains?

Answer 8

The pollen grain is the structure used to transport the male gamete to the female part of a flower. Pollen must be strong to protect the male gametes on their journey.

Question 9

What is wind pollination?

Answer 9

Is a form of pollination where by pollen is distributed by wind

Question 10

Describe cycad pollination by beetles

Answer 10

• Cycads have been proven to be insect pollinated by a strong smell
• Cycads have symbiotic associations with host-specific insects, mostly beetles and are attracted to cycad cones

Question 11

What is buzz pollination?

Answer 11

Is a technique used by some bees using vibrations to release pollen which is more or less firmly held by the anthers, which makes pollination more efficient.

Question 12

How are UV colors are useful to bees?

Answer 12

• Bees base all their colors on UV light and blue and yellow colors
• The UV light designates where the nectar is for the bees

Question 13

What are specialized visitors?

Answer 13

• When bees are specialized on a different pollen source
• Mice, birds, and bats

Question 14

What are oil rewards?

Answer 14

• Flowers that have scented oils are used to attract females
• BUT it doesn’t come for free because its super slippery and somtimes the flower defends itself to keep the bee’s away

Question 15

What are some unusual orchids?

Answer 15

Red orchid

Question 16

Describe veterbrate pollination involving geckos, lemurs, and perching birds

Answer 16

• When nectar is hard to get out of a palnt so lemurs and other vertebrates get it by using traits such as having long tongues
• They usually get pollen on them that is used to pollinate other plants

Question 17

How are hummingbirds related to the birds and the bees?

Answer 17

• Hummingbirds collect the sweet nectar from the flower and they get pollen on their neck to fertilize other plants.
• They have a color spectrum like us and can see blue and red easily
• Lack a sense of smell

Question 18

1. What is an example floral mimics? (sexual deception by orchids)

What happens with blow flies on dead horse arum?

Answer 18

1. • Orchids look like wasps that release a similar phermone of female wasps and the male wasps get confused and mate with the flower
2. The dead-horse arum when it’s ready to pollinate, the flower begins to generate a scent. The scent smells like rotting flesh, which attracts blow-flies. The flies, looking for a place to lay their eggs, crawl into a pocket around the base of the flower stalk.
   - There, the blow-flies are trapped by spines and filaments. If these flies had previously visited another dead-horse arum, they transfer the pollen they picked up there to the female parts of the plant.
   - The next day, when the male parts of the flower are producing pollen, the flies, now coated with this pollen, are released to pollinate another arum.

Question 19

Titan arum – huge, monocarpic

Answer 19

• The largest flower in the world that smells like rotten fish thats attracts insects

Question 20

Fig wasps: Describe their pollination method

Answer 20

1. The fertilized female wasp enters the fig.
2. She crawls inside the fig and pollinates some of the female flowers. She lays her eggs inside some of the flowers and dies.
3. After weeks of development in their galls, the male wasps emerge before females through holes they produce by chewing the galls. The male wasps then fertilize the females by depositing semen in the hole in the gall.
4. The males later return to the females and enlarge the holes to enable the females to emerge and then the males die.

Question 21

What is cross-pollination?

Answer 21

The transfer of pollen from the anther of a flower of one plant to the stigma of the flower of another plant of the same species.

Question 22

What is Endolithic algae, in arctic stones?

Answer 22

• Grow slowly in rocks
• Burst into bloom during the summer months and are close to the ground from the wind

Question 23

Arctic plant adaptations

Answer 23

• Are close to the ground to protect them from the wind
• Have a short growing season when there is warmth
• Use dead animals to grow from their warmth and nutrients
• Always faces the sun to not waste any sunlight they need to survive
• Have small rounded humps to conserve heat

Question 24

What is special about Heliotropic poppies and arctic plants?

Answer 24

They are always facing the sun in order to get as much light as possible to survive

Question 25

Cushion plants in the high mountains

Answer 25

• Have small rounded humps to conserve heat

Question 26

How do some plants protect themselves from the cold?

Answer 26

• Plants can have dense hairs
• Dead leaves are used to prevent them from getting ice solid
• Plants can fold over their thick leaves at night to protect themselves

Question 27

What are some drought adaptations regarding the Namib Desert?

Answer 27

• Self fabrication when plants choose to loose leaves to survive
• Some small plants have cones that dont break until rain comes where they then can produce flowers

Question 28

Describe the aspects of saguaro cacti of Arizona

Answer 28

• Are large succlents that retain water
• Grow high to collect even the slightest bit of water before it evaporates

Question 29

What are Lithops which are the window plants of South Africa?

Answer 29

• Lithops cactus plants are often called “living stones” but they also look a bit like cloven hooves. These small, split succulents are native to deserts.

Question 30

Name some examples of seed dormancy as a desert adaptation

Answer 30

• Live underground where its cool OR in the hot sand until the rain arrives and the desert turns into a meadow
• The plants produce rapidly after a rainfall

Question 31

Describe the importance of Mt. Roraima, Venezuela (Carnivorous plants Drosera, bladderworts)

Answer 31

Some plants - Have a slippery hole for pollinators where they slip into the plant stem and are drowned to death and ingested by the pant

Bladderwort-

Drossera- Catch insects by using sticky scented hairs

Question 32

Describe the aspects of the giant Amazon water lilies (leaves and pollination)

Answer 32

• Have spines to protect itself and are boyant in water
• It is 6 feet in diameter
• Grow flowers that give off a strong perfume and the flower closes at night
• The flower attracts beetles on its first day to get pollinated

Question 33

What is the importance of swamp and mangrove apatations?

Answer 33

• Through physiological adaptations, mangroves are able to live in harsh saline environments.
• Mangrove trees are adapted for survival in oxygen-poor or anaerobic sediments through specialized root structures
• Mangroves have poorly developed, shallow below-ground root systems while having well-developed aerial roots. These aerial roots allow for the transport of atmospheric gases to the underground roots.

Question 34

What are the adaptations to kelp on the rocky coast?

Answer 34

• Moved with the tide to gather light

Question 35

What is the role of phytoplankton?

Answer 35

• Are the autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key factor of oceans, seas and freshwater basin ecosystems
• Move with the tide to gather light

Question 36

Name some plants we saw on the Herbarium tour

Question 37

Why are herbariums important?

Answer 37

Beyond their customary value to taxonomy, herbarium collections have become crucial for a wide array of studies including such things as reconstruction of plant phylogeny, the spread and habitat preferences of invasive species, population trends of rare plants, identifying priority sites for conservation, pollination ecology, education, forensic studies, ethnobotanical studies, and phenology studies to name a few.

Question 38

Name some more plants and their features from the hebarium

Answer 38

Question 39

What is conversion evolution?

Answer 39

The process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.