BIOL111_THU_Gannon_Kandage_Wang's Journal

The plant of Genus Oxyria in my observation, its placement in OneZoom is at Plantae --> Angiosperms --> Caryophyllales --> Polygonaceae.

The common characteristics of plants in my observations --- they are all terrestrial plants, need water, sunshine, air and nutrition, grow and develop, reproduce and have a life process from birth to death.

One of the unique plant in my observation is mosses, mosses has the unique adaptation that it do not blossom or bear seeds. They reproduce as spores like fungi.

The phylogeny placement of the American Aster falls most closely within the Daisy family. Its most recent ancestors include the Smallhead, Purplestern, and Douglas asters. The Daisy family resides within a larger category of Eudicots, a subsect of flowering and seed plants.

The angiosperms in my observations all share a common adaptation crucial to their survival. All of these plants flower. Flowering, though also beautiful to look at, has a more important purpose: to help plants seed and reproduce. The flowering plants and their nectar invite insects and other animals to pollinate and help them reproduce.

The Dwarf dandelion, as pictured in one of my observations, has a unique adaptation to help it reproduce. The yellow dandelion flower transitions into the signature grey fluff. This fluff enables the dandelions seeds to be carried easily by the wind, enabling its reproduction without the help of an insect.

Being a part of the Plantae kingdom, plantains (Genus Plantago) are angiosperms that fall under the order Plantaginaceae.

The angiosperms all undergo sexual reproduction where two gamete cells fuse to form a diploid cell, but they require other factors for this to occur and for the resultant seeds to spread. Many flowering plants have pollinators such as bees. Other species' seeds spread after the plant has been consumed by another animal, and some, such as plantains and dandelions, largely depend on the wind to spread seeds and produce the next generation.

Plants in the genus Plantago have made several adaptations to ensure their survival as weeds in the city such as the resistance to both drought and flooding. Thus, they can easily exist by the side of a building, or in the crack of a sidewalk where the water supply is likely to be inconsistent.