Burdock

Burdock, or genus Arctium is a vascular plant (phylum) that is invasive to North America. It is part of the family, asteraceae, which is under the order asterales. Since Burdock lie close to the ground beneath large trees that block the sunlight they receive, they have evolved larger leaves, which provide increased surface area to absorb more light energy for photosynthesis. An adaptation common to all the observations is that they are C3 plants. While the C3 pathway leads to photorespiration in hot and dry climates, this is not a significant issue given the sufficient rainfall and moderate temperature of Montreal. It has not been necessary for the plants to evolve an alternative pathway. C3 plants evolved a long time ago when CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere were high and O2 concentrations were too low for photorespiration to be a problem.

Posted on September 22, 2021 10:51 AM by alecwang