Mon 4/16 UW Botany Greenhouse

Today Amy and I visited the UW Botany Greenhouse during a break between classes. We didn't have much time, but we saw some interesting plants. We saw the Venus Flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) that Susan included in her lesson earlier in the quarter. I learned that carnivorous plants thrive in bogs because they are low-resource environments. Carnivorous plants gain many nutrients from the insects they trap and digest with enzymes, therefore, they require less from their environment.

I am fascinated by the marine plants Doug has set up. Lilies are my all-time favorite flower, so naturally I gravitated towards the beautiful purple African lily (Nymphaea) floating beside water hyacinth. I found water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) interesting because of the material it uses to float. It sits on bobules filled with the botanical equivalent of styrofoam. If you cut one of the bobules open, you will observe many air bubbles, which makes the material very lightweight. It uses a large leaf as a sail to move across the water. There are also fish in the water, but Doug says these are more for looks than marine derived nurients.

I noticed that the large lily pads in a pool by the door were being eaten alive by aphids. Later in the week I will volunteer to help spray these aphids off and catch them in the net (maybe I will feed them to the poison dart frogs!)

There were a couple of beautiful flowers that I also snapped pictures of, but I can't remember their names! I have posted these observations...maybe someone can take a look and tell me what they think?

Posted on May 1, 2012 04:49 AM by kates17