BIOL 111 Lab's Journal

Phylogeny Placement (OneZoom) The Eastern White Pine is a species of pine native to North America. It is classified as follows: Kingdom: Plantae, Division: Pinophyta, Class: Pinopsida, Order: Pinales, Family: Pinaceae, Genus: Pinus, Species: Pinus strobus

Unique adaptation of the Low Smartweed (Persicaria longiseta): The Low Smartweed has evolved to have flowers which attract insects (eg butterflies) that would lay their eggs on the plants. Once the eggs hatch , the infant insects (eg caterpillars) eat their flowers along with their seeds. Many seed eating water fowl (ducks, sparrows, etc.) also spread their seeds through eating them.

General adaptation of all observations: The adaptive advantage of all the observations having green pigmented leaves is the ability to produce chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is necessary for the sunlight-absorbing energy-producing reaction called photosynthesis which sustains most of the species under the Kingdom Plantae.

Phylogeny Placement: I chose to look at the Eastern Hemlock. This type of tree can be found from Minnesota to Nova Scotia! It is under 'threatened' conservation status. These trees can grow to be over 100 feet tall, and up to 500 years old. Eastern Hemlocks are part of kingdom Plantae (part of the tracheophyte clade) Division: Pinophyta, Class: Pinopsida, Order: Pinales, Family: Pinaceae, Genus: Tsuga, Species: Tsuga canadensis

Unique adaptation of the Sugar Maple: The leaves of sugar maple trees come with a lot of benefits. The shape of the leaf is very broad. This large surface area allows the tree to collect as much sun as it can-- especially considering that they tend to live in shaded areas. The leaves also serve as a way for the trees to regulate soil pH. The Sugar Maple tree leaves nutrients in its leaves-- when the leaves shed and decompose during the fall, the nutrients replenish the soil and maintain optimum pH for the trees coming growing cycle.

General adaptation of all observations: The adaptive advantage of all of my observations is their green color! The color green comes from the chlorophyll in plant cells. This chlorophyll absorbs light for photosynthesis. The light that gets absorbed the least by chlorophyll is green; hence leaves being green (and turning red as chlorophyll breaks down in the fall) This adaptation-- packing chlorophyll into plant cells-- is vital to efficient and effective photosynthesis.

Phylogeny Placement: I chose the Devil’s beggarticks. It is a North American species of flowering plant in the aster family that is widespread across much of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It is in the Domain: Eukaryota, Kingdom: Plantae, Phylum: Spermatophyta, Subphylum: Angiospermae, Class: Dicotyledonae, Order: Asterales, Family: Asteraceae, Genus: Bidens, and Species: Bidens frondosa.

General Adaptation: The general adaptation of all my observations is a type of behavioral adaptation called gravitropism. Gravitropism, otherwise known as geotropism, is the influence of gravity on plant growth. Gravitropism helps plants extend their roots deep into the soil to uptake water and nutrients and helps the stem of the plants to grow and orient the photosynthesizing leaves vertically up towards the source of light even when they were tilted or on a small hill.

Unique Adaptation: The Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), has evolved to have very colourful fruit that attracts animals, especially birds, to eat the fruit. This is so that, when the seeds go through the animal’s digestive tract, the seeds are deposited with natural fertilizer in other locations. The Virginia Creeper has also evolved to contain calcium oxalate crystals that cause irritation and pain when they are chewed or swallowed. This is to prevent certain animals from doing more than sampling the plant which protects the Virginia Creeper from being destroyed.

I chose to do the eastern white pine (Pinus strobus). They are native to eastern North America and are a large pine. It is also called the “Tree of Peace” or the “Weymouth Pine”. It is from the plantae kingdom, tracheophytes clad, pinophyta division, pinopsida class, pinales order, pinaceae family, pinus genus, p. subg. Strobus subgenus, p. sect. Quinquefolia section, p. subsect. Strobus subsection, and is the P. strobus species.

A general adaptation for all my observations is the thickness of the bark. I noticed most of my observations had large trunks and very thick barks to protect them through the cold winters of Montreal. These barks also help them adapt to the weather changes throughout the year.

The eastern white pine has a lateral root system that grows downwards. This adaptation is called sinker roots, and is different from the typical tap root. The sinker roots allow the system to have more surface area which allows the tree to take in more water for the rest of the plant.

Phylogeny: The Norway Maple is in Kingdom: Plantae, Clade: Tracheophytes, Clade: Angiosperms, Clade: Eudicots, Clade: Rosids, Order: Sapindales, Family: Sapindaceae, Genus: Acer, Section: Platanoidea, Species: A. platanoides.

Unique adaptation: The Norway Maple has adapted so its roots grow near the soil surface. This lets it gather more nutrients and outcompete neighboring plants with their roots further down.

General adaptation: I noticed that many of the plants I observed had their leaves growing high up. This probably helps them get more sunlight, especially when many plants in an area are competing for the sunlight in that area.

The blue spruce belongs to the Kingdom Plantea, Subkingdom Streptophyta (land plant) Division Tracheophyta (vascular plant), Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plant), genus Picea, Species pungens.

Specific observation: Blue spruces have needle like leaves as opposed to broad ones. Needles loose less water and have less wind resistance making the tree less likely to fall over in storms.

General observations: Most if not all the plants had green leaves reflecting the universal presence of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the light-absorbing pigment allowing plants to absorb light energy to power carbon fixation.

Phylogeny placement of one species: The boxelder, commonly known as Manitoba maple, represents the species Acer negundo, which belongs to the family of Aceraceae, from the order of Sapindales. It is part of the Kingdom: Plantae, Clade: Tracheobionta, Division: Magnoliophyta, Class: Magnoliopsida, and Subclass: Rosidae.

Adaptation common to all observed species: I noticed that almost all of the observed species have thin stems because the plants saved energy in not growing strong wooden stems but rather rapidly long stems in order to expose their leaves to the sunlight.

Unique adaptation for one observation: The Conium maculatum (or poison hemlock) is the only plant that contains poisonous parts, among the observations. Poison is a mean of defense (against herbivores) for this species, which can hence adapt and survive in a variety of environments.